Morung Express News
Dimapur | August 17
A two-member search committee has been constituted to identify candidates for appointment of next Nagaland Lokayukta.
According to a Department of Personnel & Administrative Reforms (DP&AR) office memorandum, the State Chief Secretary and Advocate General of Nagaland are the two members of the committee.
The committee was constituted for identifying candidates to be considered for appointment as Lokayukta Nagaland by the State Governor in pursuance of Section 3(2) of the Nagaland Lokayukta Act, 2017 and Section 3 Sub-Section 2 (ii) of the Nagaland Lokayukta (Amendment) Act, 2019, the office memorandum stated.
Incidentally, the DP&AR office memorandum was dated July 29 was posted in Nagaland State portal on August 13, suggesting the continuity of the committee, despite the State Government moving a bill for the amendment of the Nagaland Lokayukta Act in recently concluded monsoon session of Nagaland Legislative Assembly (NLA) on August 3 and 5.
The tenure of the first Nagaland Lokayukta as per its website was from February 22, 2019 to February 5, 2021. Before the amendment, the vacancy was supposed to be filled “as soon as possible, but not later than six months from the date of occurrence of such vacancy.” Accordingly, a new Nagaland Lokayukta should have been in place by August 5, 2021.
However, with the introduction and the subsequent passing of the amendment bill in the Assembly on August 3 and 5 respectively, the filling up vacancy in the office of the Nagaland Lokayukta or Upa-Lokayukta was enhanced to one year, from the existing stipulated time frame of ‘not later than six months.’
The previous Nagaland Lokayukta had a ‘stormy’ tenure with the matter even reaching the Supreme Court of India, which eventually adjudicated the same earlier in February this year.
