Governor cannot be named respondent in petition: HC

Directs state to file another petition on September 5.

In a major setback to the Gujarat government's move to protest against appointment of a Lokayukta for the state by Governor Kamla Beniwal, the Gujarat High Court on Monday directed the former to delete Beniwal's name as one of the respondents in its petition.

Even while the state had finally got a Lokayukta after a gap of seven years, the Gujarat government had on Friday filed a petition against Gujarat Governor Kamla Beniwal for appointing retired justice RA Mehta as the Lokayukta of the state, bypassing the state government.

The Gujarat HC was of the view that being a constitutional head of the state a governor cannot be named as a respondent in a petition filed by the state government.

The HC has directed to file a petition again on September 5 by naming respondents in some other department.

While hearing the petition of the Gujarat government last Friday, single-judge bench of justice Abhilasha Kumari had directed Advocate General of State Kamal Trivedi to check legal provisions if the Governor could be impleaded personally in any legal matter.

Justice Kumari had also asked the government counsel to explain on what grounds the government was challenging an order given by the Governor.

On her part, after thorough legal consultations, Gujarat Governor Kamla Beniwal on late Thursday night had appointed justice RA Mehta as the Lokayukta by issuing a notification.

Miffed by the way the Governor had appointed justice Mehta as the Lokayukta for state, the Government of Gujarat had challenged the appointment in the Gujarat High on Friday.

On Friday, Congress had also alleged that the state government was deliberately making attempts to delay the appointment of the Lokayukta in the state. Leader of Opposition Shaktisinh Gohil had led a delegation of Congress MLAs to the Governor on the issue of Lokayukta on Friday to hand over a memorandum to her.

"The Governor had told us that non-appointment of Lokayukta for the last seven years, was a matter of grave concern as there was no authority to look into affairs of the government," Gohil stated.

Meanwhile, earlier this week, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had formed a high-level study group comprising of five state cabinet ministers to suggest amendments in the existing Gujarat Lokayukta Act and other Acts related with it based on the provisions of Lokpal bill agreed upon by the Government of India and Anna Hazare and passed by the Parliament.