PROF S N HEGDE Vs. LOKAYUKTA BANGALORE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN these writ petitions important questions of law as regards the power of the Lokayukta and the Upalokayukta to investigate complaints under the provisions of the Karnataka Lokayukta Act, 1984, the procedure to be followed in such investigations, the effect of the report submitted by the Lokayukta and the consequences that flow from the declarations made under the Act arise for consideration, in addition to the question whether the Lokayukta or Upalokayukta has jurisdiction to investigate a complaint against a Vice-Chancellor of a University.

(2.) THE petitioner in W. P. Nos. 25339 and 25340 of 2003 is one professor S. N, Hegde, Vice-Chancellor, University of Mysore. His case in brief is as under. The petitioner was appointed as the Vice-Chancel lor in September 1997 initially for a period of three years which was further extended for a period of three years in September 2000. His term was to expire in september 2003. He had put in more than 40 years of service in teaching, research and administration in the field of higher education. Because of his performance he was given a second term. He was holding m. Sc and Ph. D Degrees in Zoology and has written more than 60 research article's published in reputed national and international journals. He has guided eleven Ph. D students. He was also a commonwealth Post Doctoral Fellow in England during Fulbright (1974-76) and full-time visiting Professor at the University of Arizona, u. S. A. during the period 1992-93. He was also a member of National and International academic bodies, namely, Member, New York academy of Science, American Association for the advancement of science, Elected President for two terms of the Indian Society for comparative Animal Physcology. He is also a recipient of Shivarama karantha, International Parisara Award. He has a clean and an unblemished track record.

(3.) THE fourth respondent herein who was in the habit of blackmailing various persons in order to get his work done in the University where he is employed, has fabricated a false complaint against the petitioner with the help of the third respondent. This is evident from the fact that the complaints lodged against former Vice-Chancellors, Prof K. S. Hegde (1979-35), Dr. P. Selvie Das (1988-91) and Prof M. Madaiah (1991-97)which were enquired into by Committees such as Venkataswamy committee, Hazira Committee and Sharma Committee found that the allegations made by the fourth respondent were false and closed the files exonerating them.