Yarabati Bhaskar Rao takes oath as Karnataka Lokayukta

Former Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court Justice Yarabati Bhaskar Rao on Thursday took oath as the state's new Lokayukta.

The 74-year-old former Chief Justice was sworn into office at the Raj Bhavan by Karnataka Governor H R Bharadwaj.

According to reports, Justice Rao's choice was cleared by a panel comprising, Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, acting Chief Justice of the High Court K Sreedhar Rao, Legislative Council Chairman D.H. Shankarmurthy, Legislative Assembly Speaker K G Bopaiah and Leaders of the Opposition in the two Houses Siddaramaiah and S.R. Patil.

Justice Rao, who hails from Andhra Pradesh's Karimnagar District, was acting Chief Justice of Karnataka high court for three months in 1999 and later served as Chief Justice from March 9, 2000 to June 26, 2000.

After retirement, he was appointed Chairman of Andhra Pradesh Human Rights Commission and later became a member of the National Human Rights Commission.

The post of Karnataka Lokayukta had been lying vacant since September 2011, after Shivaraj V Patil resigned from the post in the wake of a media expose that showed irregularities in the allotment of two residential plots to him and his wife.