Proposal to empower Nagaland Lokayukta

The Lokayukta or the Ombudsman that deals with corruption and mal-administration, has been reduced to a toothless tiger in many states of India.
One such case is the Nagaland Lokayukta, which has been divested of most of its powers. As per the proposal to amend the Nagaland Lokayukta Act 2017, the said Act (2017) has no provision for an investigation, prosecution wing or a special court unlike the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act 2013 where provisions have been made for an inquiry, investigation, prosecution wings and special court under Section 2 (1) of the P.C. Act.
It was also pointed out that the resolution of the state government constituting the State Vigilance Commission had been repealed vide Sec. 36 (1) of the 2017 Act. In this regard, all notifications issued by the government– declaring vigilance police station, director of V&AC as officer-in-charge of vigilance police station, jurisdiction and offences into which V&AC officers can investigate has been repealed.
Under such circumstances, it said that officers of Nagaland Lokayukta are deprived of the powers to arrest and do not have the advantage of custodial interrogation and registration of criminal cases. It further pointed out that not a single FIR has been lodged after the enactment of the Act of 2017 as there was no police station and no officer in-charge of police station.
Therefore, in order to avoid any conflict/issue hat may arise with respect to criminal jurisprudence of the Nagaland Lokayukta police the following suggestions had been made– director investigation Nagaland Lokayukta be declared as a police station, director Nagaland Lokayukta police be declared as OC in-charge of Lokayukta police station. It also suggested that the powers and jurisdiction of Nagaland Lokayukta police station be defined and also notification of special court in the office Nagaland Lokayukta under Sec. 3 (1) of the PC Act.
It may be mentioned that the State government vide notification dated October 1, 2019 changed the nomenclature of the directorate of Vigilance & Anti Corruption to that of ‘Directorate of Investigation’ and Vigilance & Anti Corruption Police to that of ‘Nagaland Lokayukta Police’.