Plea In Kerala High Court Challenges Delay By Lok Ayukta In Passing Verdict On Matter Reserved For Orders One Year Ago

A plea has been filed in the Kerala High Court challenging the "unexplained" delay by the Lok Ayukta in passing verdict in a matter which was heard and reserved for orders on March 18, 2022. 

The petitioner, R.S. Sasikumar, had approached the Lok Ayukta under Section 9(1) of the Kerala Lok Ayukta Act, challenging the Cabinet decision taken on July 27, 2017, to give financial aid to the families of the deceased political leader Uzhavoor Vijayan and a deceased police officer, and also to write off the debts of the deceased political leader KK Ramachandran, and to give the son of the deceased leader a government job. 

After deciding the issue of maintainability in favour of the complainant, members of the Lok Ayukta and Upa Lok Ayukta had demitted their office and after a gap, appointments had been made to fill up the vacancies. After elaborate hearing, covering all the points, the case was reserved for orders on March 18, 2022.

The petitioner pointed out in his plea filed through Advocate Nisha George that one year has elapsed since the conclusion of the hearing. The petitioner submitted that the delay in passing the order had resulted in loss of faith in the machinery of Lok Ayukta as would be evident from the substantial reduction of cases before the entity over the years.  

The petitioner also relied upon an analysis of data of cases between 2016 and 2022 to buttress his submission that the number of cases filed before Lok Ayukta had substantially reduced over the years. 

"The petitioner is not prepared to accept that corruption, nepotism and maladministration have reduced in State of Kerala for a demonstrative difference in filing complaints before the Lok Ayukta or Upa Lok Ayukta. It can only be the result of a feeling as regards the ineffectiveness or the lack of usefulness of invoking the jurisdiction after sparing time, money and energy for social good and for ventilating the grievances. The present trend at any rate is not infusing confidence in the system. On the other hand, it will increase the frustration in the community and encourage corruption, nepotism and maladministration and misuse of office by those who are enjoying power under difference strata of the society," the plea avers. 

The petitioner has thus approached the Court seeking the issuance of a direction to pronounce the order in the matter forthwith, within a time limit to meet the ends of justice. 

Case Title: R.S. Sasikumar v. The Kerala Lok Ayukta