Will inform status of new Lokayukta in 3 weeks: AG to HC

PANAJI: The state government on Wednesday informed the high court of Bombay at Goa that it has initiated the process to appoint a new Lokayukta for Goa, advocate general Devidas Pangam said.
The current Lokayukta, Justice P K Misra, retires on September 17. “The status (of the search for his successor) will be informed to the court in three weeks,” he told TOI.
TOI reported on Tuesday that even as Misra’s tenure is due to end, its office will be non-functional with 75 pending cases, as the state is yet to start the search for a new Lokayukta.
A Panaji lawyer, Aires Rodrigues, had approached the high court seeking a direction to the government to select a new Lokayukta to take office after the incumbent’s term ends.
In his petition, Rodrigues had said that the government should have started the process to appoint a new one.
Misra, the current Lokayukta, took the oath of office on April 28, 2016. Most pending cases at the institution pertain to illegal construction, along with others like the labour scam and the construction of the new Taleigao panchayat ghar.
Misra was appointed after the Goa cabinet dragged its feet for three years. Misra, prior to his appointment as Lokayukta, served a five-year term as chairperson of the state human rights commission.
The first Goa Lokayukta, former Supreme Court judge Justice Sudershan Reddy, was appointed in March 2013, but resigned within seven months, citing personal reasons.
In January this year, the Lokayukta recommended that the directorate of vigilance’s anti-corruption branch (ACB) file an FIR against former chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar, former mines secretary Pawan Kumar Sain and former mines director Prasanna Acharya in connection with the alleged “corruption” and “criminal conspiracy” regarding the renewal of 88 mining leases between November 2014 and January 2015.