THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The CPI ministers on Tuesday opposed the bill to replace the Lok Ayukta (Amendment) Ordinance when the cabinet considered it for presenting it in the upcoming assembly session, it is learnt.
Governor Arif Mohammed Khan had refused to repromulgate 11 ordinances, including the Lok Ayukta one, recently.
It is reliably learnt that the four CPI ministers in the cabinet - revenue minister K Rajan, agriculture minister P Prasad, food and civil supplies minister G R Anil and animal husbandry and dairy development minister J Chinchurani - registered their dissent to the bill that dilutes the powers of the Lok Ayukta.
CPI may move amendment
The present amendment seeks to ensure that recommendations made by the Lok Ayukta against any minister or any official, under Section 14 of the Act, will not be binding on the government.
It is learnt that the CPI has sought an independent high-level body to take a call on Lok Ayukta's recommendations instead of the provision in the bill that the chief minister or the governor can take the call on the matter. The party is reportedly planning to move an official amendment when the bill is introduced in the assembly if no consensus is reached at the cabinet level.
The government had introduced the Kerala Lok Ayukta (Amendment) Ordinance, 2022 after a Lok Ayukta verdict led to the resignation of former minority affairs minister K T Jaleel from the last LDF government.
The validity of the ordinance expired on August 7, six weeks after the commencement of the assembly session convened after its promulgation. The government had sent the ordinance, along with others, for their repromulgation to the governor but Khan refused to sign them citing that it is not right to promulgate ordinances again and again. The government then decided to convene an assembly session immediately and introduce bills to replace them.
The original Lok Ayukta Act was passed in 1999, when CPI leader E Chandrasekharan Nair was the law minister. It is learnt that the party has strong objections against diluting the act in which it had a key role to play, for whatever reasons.
