Bommai government to abide by High Court's ACB order, but no clarity on execution

A day after the Karnataka High Court dissolved the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Friday said the government would “abide by the order” and pointed out that it was in line with the BJP’s 2018 election promise.

However, the government is indecisive on implementing the court’s order.

“We had said in our manifesto that the ACB would be abolished and the Lokayukta would be continued with. Since the matter was in court, we couldn’t take the decision. Now that the court has given the judgement, we will abide by our manifesto, which also happens to be the court’s decision,” Bommai said.

Also Read — Karnataka HC dissolves ACB, shifts cases to Lokayukta

“However, we need to study the entire text of the judgement before implementing it. The law minister and advocate-general will guide us on this,” Bommai added.

The abolition of the ACB, which the previous Siddaramaiah-led Congress government had constituted, was informally discussed in the Cabinet meeting on Friday.

Law Minister J C Madhuswamy said the government is still undecided on appealing the High Court’s decision. “In principle, the BJP is committed to abolish the ACB. However, we have to take many things into consideration,” he said.

Madhuswamy confessed that there is a dilemma. “The question before the government is, while we ourselves have committed in our manifesto that the ACB would be abolished, shouldn’t we defend the decision of the (previous Siddaramaiah) government in court?” he said.

“The High Court has not just quashed the ACB, but they’ve talked about merging it by giving more powers to the Lokayukta and shifting personnel to the Lokayukta...that’s not warranted. We need to discuss... Can the court do all this? Can the court give all these things in the judgement? How can we go about all this in our execution?” he explained.

Madhuswamy pointed out that there are several grey areas. “What should be done with cases with FIRs? What about the officers? What will happen to cases where raids were done? What about charge-sheeted cases? Who should be made responsible for all this? We have to study. It’s not so easy,” the minister said, repeating that the government is committed to its manifesto promise.

Accordingly, the Cabinet was informed that a decision will be taken after studying the court’s order. “It’s a 260-page judgement! We must address specific points made. Otherwise, the court will go against us again,” Madhuswamy said.