A day after backing out of the race for the Lok Ayukta’s post, Justice SR Bannurmath vented his ire at the media and governor HR Bhardwaj, accusing them of carrying out a campaign to prevent him from being appointed as Lok Ayukta.
Addressing the media on Tuesday, Justice Bannurmath replied to charges that appeared in the media against him and objections raised by Bhardwaj, who refused to accept the state government’s recommendation for appointing him as Lokayukta.
“The first allegation is that the allotment of a site in Judicial Layout is illegal on the grounds that I own another property in Bangalore. I state that I do not own any other property and hence the allegation is baseless,” he said.
Justice Bannurmath, who read an eight-page statement and did not field questions, denied the allegation that the Judicial Layout site was part of the area reserved for civic amenities. “The portion where my site is located has not been reserved for civic amenities as proved by the BDA-approved plan , which shows that the site is beyond the park,” he said.
He also rejected the view that he could not be allotted a site on the grounds that he cannot be regarded as an “employee” of the judicial department.
“A high court division bench dismissed the writ petition challenging the allotment of sites on the same grounds. This was confirmed by the Supreme Court. Neither the media nor anybody else raised questions against the final verdict of the Supreme Court,” he said.
He pointed out that he is not the only high court judge who has a site in Judicial Layout. There are about 80 judges who have sites, he said. Launching an indirect attack on Bhardwaj, he questioned the rationale behind the recent appointment of Justice Chandrashekaraiah as Upa Lokayukta as Justice Chandrashekaraiah, too, was allotted a site in Judicial Layout despite possessing land in Bangalore.
“Why was there no objection to such an appointment?” said Justice Bannurmath.
“The false and baseless allegations levelled against me by the governor in the media affected my image,” he said. He also posed questions to the media and governor about the motives behind the “malicious and baseless allegations”.
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