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Bangalore, Feb 13 (IANS) Former chief justice of Karnataka High Court Y. Bhaskar Rao will Thursday take over as the state's Lokayukta (ombudsman), filling up the post lying vacant for over 17 months. Governor H.R. Bhardwaj will administer the oath of office to Rao at Raj Bhavan, an official release said. Rao, 75, succeeds former Supreme Court judge Shivaraj V. Patil, who quit as Lokayutka in September 2011, about a month after taking over, following a row over owning two housing plots in Bangalore allegedly in violation of law. Rao, who hails from Andhra Pradesh, was chief justice of the Karnataka High Court between March 1999 and June 2000. The Bharatiya Janata Party government, headed by Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, has gone ahead with Rao's appointment rejecting opposition to it by the Advocates Association of Bangalore (AAB). AAB president K.N. Subba Reddy said last week that when Rao's name was being considered by the government, Rao did not know Kannada language and there were allegations of irregularities when he was chief justice.
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