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{{Use Indian English|date=August 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2015}}
{{Infobox person
| name = R.A. Mehta
| image = 
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 1936
| birth_place = Maliya
| death_date = 
| death_place =
| Political party =
| other_names =
| known_for = [[Gujarat High Court]]
| occupation = Judge
}}
'''Rameshchandra Amrut Mehta''' (born 1936, at Maliya, Gujarat) is a retired justice of the [[Gujarat High Court]].
During his fourteen-year tenure in the Gujarat High Court, he came to be known for his probity and sympathy for the poor.<ref name=toi>
{{cite news
| title = Anna man is Gujarat Lokayukta
| author =
| url = http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-08-27/ahmedabad/29935689_1_gujarat-hc-gujarat-high-court-chief-justice
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110909124128/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-08-27/ahmedabad/29935689_1_gujarat-hc-gujarat-high-court-chief-justice
| url-status = dead
| archive-date = 9 September 2011
| date = 27 August 2011
| work = [[The Times of India]]
| accessdate = 2012-04-19
}}</ref>
During the [[Morvi dam failure]] of 1979, the worst flood disaster of Independent India, he assisted Justice BK Mehta commission in the investigations.. . .

==Judicial career==

He was appointed to the Gujarat High Court in 1983. Among his significant judgments of this period were the
abolition of carrying of [[night soil]] on head by low-caste menials, and the regularisation
of street hawkers in [[Ahmedabad]]. In the [[Golana]] massacre case, in which four [[Dalit]]s were killed by upper-caste Darbars ([[Rajput]]s),<ref>Averting the Apocalypse: social movements in India today, by Arthur Bonner, 1990, p.126-133</ref> eleven of whom were sentenced to life,<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.sarnews.in/newspress/?p=170
|work=SAR News
|title=Massacre Of Dalits, Christians In Gujarat Recalled
|date=16 February 2011
|accessdate=2012-04-19}}</ref> he gave guidelines for the government
and police to follow in case of caste and communal tensions.
He was also responsible for modernization and computerization of the Gujarat High Court.<ref name=toi/>

== Lokayukta of Gujarat==

In June 2011, the Chief Justice of the [[Gujarat High Court]] suggested his name as the [[Lokayukta]] of Gujarat, a critical anti-corruption post that had been lying vacant for seven years.
However, the government of Gujarat dragged its feet on formalizing his appointment.
In August 2011, responding to a [[Public Interest Litigation]] filed by the father of the murdered [[Right to Information Act|RTI]]-activist [[Amit Jethwa]], the High Court issued a show-cause notice to the government on the delay in appointment.
Eventually, the governor herself made the appointment, bypassing the government, leading to much constitutional debate.

The Narendra Modi government contested the validity of his appointment without their approval and appealed a case in the High court. On 11 October 2011, the division bench of the Gujarat high Court gave a split verdict, with senior member Justice Akil Kureshi holding Mehta's appointment by the governor as "constitutional and valid" while junior member Sonia Gokani made it clear that she "differed" with her fellow judge on the conclusion.

However, later in January 2012, the Gujarat High Court upheld the appointment of Justice R.A. Mehta by a majority verdict.<ref>{{cite journal
|url= http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2810707.ece
|title= Appointment of Lokayukta upheld; setback to Modi
|journal= The Hindu
|date=18 January 2012
|accessdate=2012-04-19}}</ref>

His appointment came at a time of intense popular outburst against corruption in India, and on the 13th day of [[Anna Hazare]]'s [[2011 Indian anti-corruption movement|hunger fast against corruption]]. Justice Mehta is known to be close to Anna, who had stayed with him on a visit to Ahmedabad in May 2011.<ref name=toi/>

The Supreme Court in its verdict on January 2013 upheld the appointment of R A Mehta as state Lokayukta by Governor Kamla Beniwal, saying it was done in consultation with the Chief Justice of the High Court.
<ref>{{cite journal
|url= http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/lokayukta-sc-rejects-gujarat-govt-plea/article4264450.ece?homepage=true
|title= Appointment of Lokayukta upheld; setback to Modi
|journal= The Hindu
|date=2 January 2013
|accessdate=2013-01-03}}</ref>
On 2 April 2013 the Narendra Modi led government passesd a bill in the Gujarat Assembly to overhaul the Lokayukta institution, virtually giving all its powers to the state and rendering it toothless.<ref>http://www.firstpost.com/politics/how-modi-govts-new-bill-is-trying-to-dilute-power-of-gujarat-lokayukta-682671.html</ref><ref>http://www.indianexpress.com/news/reject-new-lokayukta-bill-cong-tells-governor/1100188/</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mehta, R A}}
[[Category:1937 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Judges of the Gujarat High Court]]
[[Category:Lokayuktas]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian judges]]

R. A. Mehta - Revision history

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