Indian Legal News: Karnataka Lokayukta Submits Resignation

Across various India legal news reports, there is considerable speculation about the resignation of Karnataka Lokayukta, Justice N Santosh Hegde, who was appointed to this position on 3^rd August, 2006, and decided to resign from it citing his helplessness and inability to deliver justice, as the reason for quitting. Further, he has blamed non-cooperation of the government too.

India Legal News: Justice Hegde Raises Serious Allegations Against the Government

Based on other media reports pertaining to India legal news, Justice Hegde’s resignation came as no surprise. What did become a surprise was his bold criticism of the government in a 90-minute-long press conference. Several charges made by Justice Hegde are serious allegations against the Karnataka government, such as:

• Intentional delay of the government in appointing an Upa Lokayukta, to settle the thousands of cases that are pending before it.
• Reinstatement of suspended, corrupt bureaucrats by the state government.
• Crucial role played by the Union and State Governments, in disappearance of iron ore in the Karwar scam.
• Suspension of honest government officials, who seized unaccounted iron ore in Karwar.

Justice Hegde stated that he was emotionally disturbed by the government’s deliberate efforts to block his campaign against corruption. He further added that restoration of the corrupt executives to their previous positions comes as a slap on his face. The angry Lokayukta also said that, if he cannot protect people against corruption, there is no reason for him to stay in the position of power.

While political personalities continue to mouth ‘diplomatic’ answers to this development, the truth is that a judge has told ugly truths about the system to the whole nation and there is no uproar around it. Corruption is no longer a word that shames us because honesty is something we have stopped expecting from the government and to some extent, even the judiciary. The helplessness of a judge does not frighten or shame us because we have accepted injustice and corruption as inseparable bed fellows. To fight corruption, we have to begin at the root level. The question is: are we ready for it?