Politician as chairman of PSU detrimental to public interest: Karnataka HC

BENGALURU: Noting that the decision to appoint a politician as chairman would always result in compounding the miseries of the government company or public sector undertaking, its workmen and would result in detriment to the public interest, the Karnataka High Court dismissed the petition filed by one Nagarajappa (80) from Mandya, questioning the entrustment of enquiry against him to the Upa Lokayukta by the state government to examine the financial irregularities during his tenure as chairman of the Mysuru Sugar Factory Limited (MySugar Company). The government must appoint only qualified person(s) having sound domain knowledge and professional excellence to the post of chairman of a government company or public sector undertaking...The decision of the government to appoint the petitioner, who had no professional qualifications and domain knowledge, as the chairman of once one of the biggest sugar factories in Asia for political reasons was a bad decision, which has resulted in losses to the extent of Rs. 127 crore during his tenure, observed a division bench of Justice D K Singh and Justice Venkatesh Naik T, dismissing the petition for lack of merits. The court said the government was well within the power to refer the conduct(s) or action(s) taken by the petitioner as the chairman of MySugar to the Lokayukta. We do not find that there is any error committed by the Upa Lokayukta in the report. The recommendations for taking appropriate action for recovery of the losses caused for the decisions taken by the petitioner as chairman of MySugar are left to the government, and the government should act upon the recommendations, the court ordered. Nagarajappa claims to be a postgraduate in Agricultural Sciences and was working as an agriculturist. He does not claim any experience or qualification to run such a big sugar company or any management experience anywhere. However, the state government appointed him as the chairman of MySugar on October 1, 2008, with the status of Minister of State. He was removed in December 2012. Then MLA M Srinivas filed a complaint with the then chief minister against Nagarajappa in 2012, alleging serious irregularities, misconduct and misfeasance committed by him while acting as chairman, which resulted in heavy losses to the Mysugar. The state government entrusted the same to the Upa Lokayukta in 2014, who submitted the findings to the state government against Nagarajappa.