Kerala HC upholds amendments to Lok Ayukta Act

The Kerala High Court on Tuesday upheld the amendments made in 2024 to the Kerala Lok Ayukta Act, 1999.

A Division Bench of Chief Justice Soumen Sen and Justice V.M. Syam Kumar delivered the judgment after hearing a batch of petitions, including by Haripad MLA and Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala, challenging the amendment to the Act.

The petitioners had challenged the amendment to the definition of the “competent authority” and Section 14 of the Act, whereby a ‘declaration’ of the Lok Ayukta or the Upa Lok Ayukta was made as a ‘recommendation.’

The object of the Act stands defeated by replacing the ‘declaration’ with a ‘recommendation,’ whereby the executive authority will now be required to review a decision rendered by a retired Judge of the Supreme Court or by a retired Chief Justice of the High Court. The amendment, in effect, amounts to an administrative review of a decision taken by a judicial or quasi-judicial authority, they contended.

The other contentions were that the unamended provision gave due importance and enforcement to the declaration made by the Lok Ayukta in respect of the Chief Minister, a Minister and a Member of the Legislative Assembly of the State of Kerala.

However, the same has now been reduced and watered down to practically nothing, as the State legislature is now required to consider and treat the report of the Lok Ayukta as the ‘recommendation’ of the Lok Ayukta. This was not what was intended when the Act was enacted.

The Act was enacted for the purpose of improving the standards of public administration, including cases of corruption, favouritism, and official indiscipline in the administrative machinery. But the amendments are against its aims and objectives. By amending Section 14 of the Act, the finality of the orders passed by the Lok Ayukta or the Upa Lok Ayukta has been taken away, vesting power upon the Assembly and the Speaker to examine their recommendation, they contended.

The State government contended that the State legislature has the legislative competence to enact the impugned amendments. Moreover, Lok Ayukta is a creation of the Act and it is well within the legislative domain to alter, amend or vary its powers by way of the impugned amendments.

Moreover, a report or a declaration by the Lok Ayukta thus does not partake the character of a judicial order, it added.

After hearing the pleas, the court observed that the Act does not exclude judicial review of the action taken or proposed to be taken or the rejection of the recommendation by the State legislature. The said unamended provision is also likely to cause serious prejudice against whom an action is proposed.

In fact, the Karnataka Lokayukta Act gives power to the competent authority either to accept or reject after giving an opportunity of being heard. In addition, the amended provision in Section 14(2) contemplates a reason to be given by the State legislature, which makes the State legislature accountable for its decisions, the court added, while upholding the amendments to the Act, the court said.