NEW DELHI: Nagaland Lokayukta Justice U N Singh on Monday offered to resign from the post but told the Supreme Court that he should be protected from posible vengeful litigation by the state and tarnishing of his reputation in the media.
Justice Singh’s counsel, senior advocate Vikas Singh, handed over a note to a bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde conveying willingness to resign from the post on the condition that the SC dismiss Nagaland’s writ petition expressing exasperation with the Lokayukta’s “unjust and arbitrary” personal demands. The CJI-led bench had last week told Justice Singh, “We do not think you have been or can function properly (as Lokayukta) with this kind of relation with the government. We want to tell you, we do not agree with you at all. You cannot sit somewhere and dictate terms (Justice Singh wants to function as Nagaland Lokayukta while staying in Delhi). Everyone would then sit at home, say in Tamil Nadu, and function as Lokayukta of Jammu & Kashmir.” In his note to the SC, Justice Singh said he was ready to resign “upon dismissal of the petition filed by Nagaland government”.
The note added, “Nagaland or any other authority or person shall not use or refer to any material or averment placed on record in the present writ petition or connected with the issue… for initiating any kind of action, complaint or proceedings or defaming him in media or any other manner whatsoever in nature which could cause any stigma in any manner to his privileges and status, professional, official or otherwise.” Justice Singh went on to link more conditions to his resignation from the statutory post.
Nagaland advocate general K N Balgopal had narrated the controversies surrounding the Lokayukta’s functioning before making an unprecedented request of divesting the Lokayukta of all powers and entrusting pending cases to the Upa-Lokayukta. Trouble started almost immediately after Justice Singh was appointed Lokayukta in February 2019 as he sought permission to take up arbitration work despite clear prohibition for the Lokayukta from taking up any work other than those related to the statutory position. In May 2019, Justice Singh wrote to the government saying he would function “online” from his Delhi residence. Balgopal said Justice Singh demanded allocation of the chief minister’s old bungalow for his residence.