Why Justice Mehrotra Is India’s Most Effective Lokayukta?

In his spacious office, he sits surrounded by files. The sentry comes in with more files and places it on his desk, raising his mountain of paper to a new peak. There is, however, some order to this chaos. “To my left are the old cases, which I need to look into and give comments. 

On my right are the files where reports have been filed and action is awaited. In front are the new cases that I need to go through and see if there is merit for further investigation,” he says. Welcome to the office of Justice (retired) NK Mehrotra, the Lokayukta of Uttar Pradesh.

Justice Mehrotra is a well-known man in UP and also a feared one among politicians in the state. The recent disqualification of two MLAs for corruption is the latest in a long line of high-profile cases the former judge has overseen. On 18 February 2014, Mehrotra had submitted a report to UP’s Chief Minister which said that Bahujan Samaj Party MLA Uma Shankar Singh and Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Bajrang Bahadur Singh were guilty of bagging government contracts for themselves even after being elected people’s representatives. 

On 29 January this year, the Governor disqualified both legislators. During the term of UP’s previous Mayawati government, Mehrotra’s investigations led to the sacking of 10 ministers. He even has a mention in the Limca Book of Records for acting against lawmakers on charges of graft. Currently, he is probing four ministers of the state’s Akhilesh Yadav government and is in the process of submitting his report. 

He has already registered a case against state mining minister Gayatri Prasad Prajapati, an influential member of the Samajwadi Party, for amassing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. “The work I am doing is like going inside a coal mine. When you come out, there are black spots on you,” he laughs. “Fortunately, I have saved myself till date.”

The post of lokayukta, an anti- corruption ombudsman, came into being in the 70s after its creation was recommended by the Administrative Reforms Commission headed by Morarji Desai. In 1970, Maharashtra was India’s first state to appoint a lokayukta. In UP, the first was appointed in 1975. Most people weren’t even aware of the post’s existence until Anna Hazare started his movement for the Jan Lokpal Bill in 2011. If passed, the bill would have the Union Government set up a central anti-corruption institution called the Lokpal. 

Since then, lokayuktas of different states have shot to prominence. Justice Mehrotra took charge as UP’s lokayukta in 2006. Back then, there was hardly any work for him. “It was frustrating and depressing in the beginning,” he says. “When I came in 2006, my friends used to ask me what my role was. I had no work and used to leave for home at 3.30 in the afternoon.”

Mehrotra joined the state judicial service in 1969 and was a judge at the Allahabad High Court. “I have always worked hard in my career,” he says, “and this new job was completely different to what I was known for.” But it was also a challenge. He recalls how it was presumed that his office would have to abide by secrecy provisions and could not reveal the details of cases under its scrutiny. 

But when he studied the Act, he found no such constraint on the lokayukta’s authority. He started informing the media of all the cases and investigations being conducted. “It was a well-planned move to first get it published in the media and then see if the government reacts to it,” he says.

In 2009, Mehrotra started an enquiry against Rajesh Tripathi, a minister in the then Mayawati government. Through his NGO Mukti Path Sewa Sansthan, the minister was alleged to have encroached upon 1.219 hectares of Central Government land at a riverfront in Chillupar, UP, and was found to be collecting money for cremations from families of the deceased. Rental income from shops built on this land was also going into his NGO’s account. 

In his report, Mehrotra recommended that Tripathi either step down from his post or relinquish the chairmanship of the society that ran the illegal cremation ghat. Allegations against the minister made regular media headlines. “I was waiting for the Chief Minister to decide, and yes, I was apprehensive whether she would act on the report or not,” recalls Mehrotra. A few days after his report, Mayawati dropped Tripathi from her cabinet.

Mehrotra then filed reports against three other UP ministers—Awadhpal Singh, Rangnath Mishra and Badshah Singh—and they were also ejected from the cabinet. The former judge kept releasing information to the media on the progress of the probes. “One day, I got a call from the Chief Minister’s office asking how many ministers were being investigated by the Lokayukta for corruption,” says Mehrotra. He provided the information, and based on that, four more ministers were sacked even before investigations were concluded.

Mehrotra became famous in the state. A mere announcement of an enquiry against any MLA or minister would make headlines. With 10 ministers sacked within two-and-a-half years, he earned himself a reputation for being the country’s most effective lokayukta. Besides ministers, he also initiated investigations against 10 MLAs and chairmen of six corporations in that period. 

Was he ever threatened by the powerful leaders he acted against? “I won’t say they threatened me, but some did try to influence the investigation,” says Mehrotra. He recalls starting an enquiry against a woman who headed a corporation and asking her to appear for questioning. A minister landed at his home and pleaded with him to drop the case.

Justice Mehrotra’s six-year term was supposed to end on 16 March 2012. “I dispatched my reports against two ministers, Babu Singh Kushwaha and Naseemuddin Siddiqui, a day before my retirement,” he says. It was the day Akhilesh Yadav’s new state government took charge, and the UP Lokayukta Act didn’t permit any holder of the post a second term. The first thing the incoming government did was promulgate an ordinance to extend the term by two years. 

This was done on the instructions of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, the man who had appointed Mehrotra the state’s lokayukta in 2006. The extension was widely criticised by opposition parties. A petition filed by a Lucknow-based lawyer challenged it in the Supreme Court, which upheld the government’s decision but directed it to look for a successor well before Mehrotra’s revised retirement date to avoid future legal wrangles.

Bahujan Samaj Party leaders allege that Mehrotra acted against their ministers at the behest of Mulayam Singh Yadav. The lokayukta denies the allegation. “It is true that his government appointed me,” he says. “But to say that I acted under his influence is completely baseless. My first investigation in 2006 was against one of his ministers. I am investigating some high-profile ministers in the current government too.”

Some suspect that is the reason why the state government is now looking for someone to replace Mehrotra. “The Chief Minister’s people come and tell me he is not happy with my work,” he says, “But I am here to do justice and am acting within the purview of my authority.”

Mehrotra has six policemen as guards who travel with him in a pilot vehicle. “No one can secure your life if your time has come,” he says, “This is just symbolic.” His extended tenure comes to an end next month, and he is satisfied with what he has achieved. 

Disclosing details of high-profile cases to the media, he admits, has won him popularity. But it was for a public cause, he says. “This is my style of working. If something is reported against a politician, it grabs attention. It makes my job easier to pursue the cases. Yes, I got popularity, but it helped the state in the process.”