SHILLONG, FEB 22: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Thursday said the government has amended the Meghalaya Lokayukta Act in 2021 to make Lokayukta functional.

Replying to a resolution move by opposition VPP MLA from North Shillong Adelbert Nongrum, Sangma said that the Lokayukta under the Meghalaya Lokayukta Act, 2014 in absence of amendment carried out in 2021 was not even functional as to unamended Meghalaya Lokayukta Act required minimum of chairman and four members out of which fifty percent shall be from judicial.

Even a single vacancy either to the post of chairperson or members would have made the Lokayukta dysfunctional.

“The amendment of the Meghalaya Lokayukta Act 2014 that was passed by this August House in 2021 amended section 3 by replacing the word “and” with “or” in clause (a) of sub-section 2. This amendment achieved the statutory purpose of making Lokayukta functional,” he said while adding “The amendment of 2021 was carried out so as to fill the lacuna in the Meghalaya Lokayukta Act 2014 as the definition of Lokayukta as provided in Section 3 (2) contemplated that Lokayukta can function and discharge the duties only when Lokayukta consists of chairperson and four members.”

Further, the CM said these amendments were very much needed then as there was a challenge to the decision passed by the earlier chairman, Lokayukta i.e Justice PK Musahary, Judge (Retd) Guwahati High Court in the High Court of Meghalaya in Writ Petition (C) No 421/2020. At that time only the chairman of the Lokayukta had been appointed.

The Division Bench of the High Court of Meghalaya vide order dated February 16, 2021 sought the response of the state government stating: “Simply by appointing a retired Judge to be the Chairperson of the Meghalaya Lokayukta is not enough to be considered as a fully constituted and functional body in view of the plain language of section 3 of the Meghalaya Lokayukta Act, 2014’.

Hence in other words, in order to constitute Lokayukta as per unamended provision of the Meghalaya Lokayukta Act, 2014, at all times, there has to be a chairman and four members out of whom 50% shall be judicial members.

The chief minister said that the government examined Lokayukta Act of other states and found that in other states like Sikkim, Haryana, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Tripura etc, Lokayukta is a single member body. The amendment was carried out in the year 2021 to make Lokayukta functional and in order to give flexibility, the word “and” was replaced with word “or”.

He said the amended provision was placed before the Division Bench of the High Court of Meghalaya that was hearing the case and the amendment was noticed by the High Court and held that Meghalaya Lokayukta has become functional. The High Court in the order stated: “..the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly has passed the Meghalaya Lokayukta (Amendment) Act, 2021, suitably amending certain provisions of the Meghalaya Lokayukta Act, 2014..”

“Considering the contents of the amendments and substitution that have now been brought into force, it cannot be held that the Meghalaya Lokayukta is non-functional at this stage.”

Meanwhile, the CM said that the Meghalaya Lokayukta is fully functional, with the current chairperson who assumed charge on February 1, 2022. Further, the secretary to the Lokayukta who is in the rank of secretary to the government of Meghalaya has been appointed by the chairperson on the recommendation of the state government as per section 10 (2) of the Act.

Further, the inquiry wing of the Meghalaya Lokayukta has also been constituted under section 11 of the Act which is headed by a Director of Inquiry who is not below the rank of additional secretary to the state government.

The Director of Prosecution has also been appointed. The officers of the Inquiry Wing have also been constituted.

“It may be stated that under the Act, all these appointments are made by the chairperson of the Lokayukta based on a panel of names sent to the Lokayukta by the state government,” he said.

The total number of complaint cases registered with the Lokayukta till date is 38 out of which 27 cases have been closed including those charge-sheeted. 11 cases are pending investigation.

“This shows that the Lokayukta is functioning as per the mandate of the Act and once again wishes to clarify that the amendments made in 2021 were made to strengthen the very functioning of the Lokayukta.

All the institutions/wings created under the Meghalaya Lokayukta Act, 2014 as amended from time to time, are in place and adequately staffed to handle all complaint cases filed in the Meghalaya Lokayukta so far,” he said.

The CM said in the event that the number of cases increases subsequently, suitable provisions are already available in the Act for strengthening the Lokayukta to deal with such emerging situation.

Further, the chairperson under section 28 (1) of the Act has the power to utilize the services of any officer of organization or investigation agency of the state government.

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