The Delhi High Court today sought a response of the Centre and the Lalit Kala Akademi (LKA) on a PIL alleging corruption and misappropriation of public funds by the cultural body.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar issued notice to the Ministry of Culture and the Lalit Kala Akademi, and sought their stand on the plea seeking to frame guidelines to regulate the Akademi's working.
The court asked the petitioner to make the former and present secretaries of LKA, Sudhakar Sharma and Vishalakshmi Nigam, respectively, as parties in the matter as allegations of misappropriating public funds and corruption have been levelled against them as well.
The bench assured the Centre that there would be no stay on the ongoing CBI probe into the allegations of corruption against LKA, and listed the petition for further hearing on May 8.
The PIL by lawyer Mukeshwar Nath Dubey has sought directions to the culture ministry and LKA to recover the misappropriated funds from the accounts of the erring officers.
The petition, filed through advocate Arpit Bhargava, has sought implementation of the recommendations given in June, 2016 by an autonomous body which was set up by the ministry to inspect and take corrective measures relating to establishment matters of the employees of LKA.
The plea has alleged that several officials of LKA have been indicted for large-scale illegalities and irregularities in administration in the autonomous body's report.
It has also sought immediate implementation of the autonomous body's report as well as action against the LKA officials who allegedly avoided taking any corrective steps to rectify the issues pointed out by the independent panel.
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