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section 20

Provisions relating to complaints and preliminary inquiry and investigation

The Meghalaya Lokayukta Act, 2014
General201463 sections15 chapters
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Chapter VII PROCEDURE IN RESPECT OF PRELIMINARY INQUIRY AND INVESTIGATION

Statutory text
  1. (1) The Lokayukta shall, on receipt of a complaint, first decide whether to proceed in the matter or close the same and if the Lokayukta decides to proceed further, it shall order the preliminary inquiry against any public servant by its Inquiry Wing or any agency (including any special investigation agency) to ascertain whether there exist a prima facie case for proceeding in the matter.
  2. (2) During the preliminary inquiry referred to in sub section (1), the Inquiry Wing or any agency shall conduct a preliminary inquiry and on the basis of material, information and documents collected, seek the comments on the allegations made in the complaint from the public servant and competent authority and after obtaining the comments of the concerned public servant and competent authority, submit, within sixty days from the date of receipt of the reference, a report to the Lokayukta.
  3. (3) A bench consisting of not less than three Members of the Lokayukta shall consider every report received under sub-section
  4. (2) from the Inquiry Wing or any agency and after giving an opportunity of being heard to the public servant, decide as to whether there exists a prima facie case, and make recommendations to proceed with one or more of the following actions, namely:—
    • (a) investigation by any agency (including any special investigation agency);
    • (b) initiation of the departmental proceedings or any other appropriate action against the concerned public servants by the competent authority;
    • (c) closure of the proceedings against the public servant and take action to proceed against the complainant under section 47.
  5. (4) Every preliminary inquiry referred to in sub-section
  6. (1) shall ordinarily be completed within a period of ninety days and for reasons to be recorded in writing, within a further period of ninety days from the date of receipt of the complaint.
  7. (5) In case the Lokayukta decides to proceed to investigate into the complaint, it shall either direct any investigation agency (including any special agency) to carry out the investigation as expeditiously as possible and complete the investigation within a period of six months from the date of its order: Provided that the Lokayukta may extend the said period by a further period not exceeding six months at a time for the reasons to be recorded in writing.
  8. (6) Notwithstanding anything contained in section 173 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, any investigation agency (including any special agency) shall, in respect of cases referred to it by the Lokayukta, submit the investigation report to the Lokayukta.
  9. (7) A bench consisting of not less than three Members of the Lokayukta shall consider every report received by it under sub-section
  10. (6) from any investigation agency (including any special agency) and may, decide as to –
    • (a) file charge-sheet or closure report before the Special Court against the public servant;
    • (b) initiate the departmental proceedings or any other appropriate action against the concerned public servants by the competent authority.
  11. (8) The Lokayukta may, after taking a decision under sub-section
  12. (7) on the filing of the charge- sheet, direct its Prosecution Wing to initiate prosecution in a Special Court in respect of cases investigated by any investigation agency (including any special agency),—
    • (a) its Prosecution Wing to initiate prosecution in the Special Court in respect of the cases investigated by the investigation agency (including any special agency); or
    • (b) any other agency in respect of the cases investigated by such agency on the direction of Lokayukta to obtain its approval and thereafter initiate prosecution in the Special Court and forward a copy of charge-sheet filed by it under this clause to the Lokayukta for the purposes of superintendence .
  13. (9) The Lokayukta may, during the preliminary inquiry or the investigation, as the case may be, pass appropriate orders for the safe custody of the documents relevant to the preliminary inquiry or, as the case may be, investigation, as it deems fit.
  14. (10) The website of the Lokayukta shall, from time to time and in such manner as may be specified by regulations, display to the public the status of number of complaints pending before it or disposed of by it.
  15. (11) The Lokayukta may retain the original records and evidences, which are likely to be required in the process of preliminary inquiry or investigation or conduct of a case by it or by the Special Court.
  16. (12) Save as otherwise provided, the manner and procedure of conducting a preliminary inquiry or investigation (including such material and documents to be made available to the public servant) under this Act, shall be such as may be specified by regulations.

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