Amendments in Goa Lokayukta Bill unfair: Santosh Hegde

Taking exception to certain clauses enshrined in Goa Lokayukta Bill 2013, former Karnataka Lokayukta Justice (retd) Santosh Hegde today said these amendments were "unfair" and should not have found mention in the Act.
"The amendments made by Goa government are completely unfair", Hegde told reporters here on the sidelines of a seminar.
The former Lokayukta was especially flustered with the clauses in the Bill prescribing punishment for fake complaint before Lokayukta and that of deemed rejection wherein recommendation of the Lokayukta stands rejected if it is not accepted by government.
"The clause of punishment for wrong complaints may discourage many from going to Lokayukta. Definitely, no one will come forward to give complaint...What if punishment is given", he questioned.

Hegde proposed that if a person feels that someone has filed a malicious complaint against him with Lokayukta then he can explore options like filing a defamation suit and initiation prosecution.
"But recommending arrest will discourage genuine complainants", he added.

Expressing concern over the deemed rejection clause, Hegde said, "That's very unfair. You create a mechanism to give recommendation to you and the Act says if it's not accepted, then it's deemed to be rejected".
"Law in all other subjects is the other way round. In case of other subjects, law is not rejected but it's deemed to be accepted", he added.

Hegde said though the clauses would not make Goa Lokayukta "null and void" but it is "unfair" to have them in the Act.