SC upholds Guj Lokayukta appointment

In a major setback to Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, the Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld Gujarat governor Kamla Beniwal’s appointment of Justice (retd) R A Mehta as state Lokayukta and said he can go ahead with his work as Lokayukta. Beniwal had on 25 August, 2011 appointed Justice Mehta to the post of Lokayukta lying vacant for the last eight years after a series of correspondences between various concerned authorities. It included the Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court also. Gujarat government’s plea was that Governor Beniwal refused to act on aid and advice of the state’s council of ministers and acted independently. It said that Beniwal consulted the leader of opposition in the state assembly but the chief minister and the council of ministers were sidelined in the process..

A bench of justices BS Chauhan and FM Ibrahim Kalifulla said that the Governor is bound to act under the advice of the Council of Ministers, but the appointment of Justice Mehta is right as it was done in consultation with the Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court.