Himachal Pradesh government on Saturday introduced amendments in the HP Lokayukta Act, 2014 to make the provision to appoint High court Judges as chairman and members of Lokayukta.
The amendments were introduced on house day of the ongoing winter session of the assembly by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur.
Thakur said the amendments were necessitated as under present provisions of section 3 of HP Lokayukta Act 2014, it is necessary for a person to be a Judge of the Supreme Court or a Chief Justice of a High Court to be eligible for appointment to the post of Lokayukta.
It had made it impossible to fill up the post of Lokayukta because as per the existing provisions, only very few persons fulfill these eligibility criteria, the CM said.
He stated that therefore, there were hurdles in filling up the post of Lokayukta, and with the intention of expanding the scope of eligible persons, it has been proposed to make the Judge of the High Court eligible for consideration for appointment as Lokayukta.
He added the proposed provisions and amendments, the state government will have more options to fill up posts in Lokayukta.
It is worth mentioning here that Himachal Pradesh Lokayukta Act, 2014 was enacted to appoint a Lokayukta for the state to inquire into allegations of corruption against public functionaries and related matters