The Supreme Court on Friday asked 12 states and union territories to explain why they have not appointed a Lokayukta.

The chief secretaries of the states and union territories have been directed by the apex court to file within two weeks about the status of appointment of Lokayuktas.

A PIL was moved by Supreme Court lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay in connection with the non-appointment of Lokayukta in Uttarakhand. The hill state had informed the SC that the process was on and subsequently appointed a Lokayukta and Uplokayukta in the state.

It was then that the Supreme Court, vide the ambit of the PIL, put on notice all the states and union territories asking them to file a status report.

Twelve states failed to file their affidavits in the SC making the bench of justices Ranjan Gogoi and R Banumathi issue the order. The chief secretaries have been asked to inform the court of the reason behind the delay and the steps taken to ensure for the appointment.

The 12 states are: Delhi, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Puducherry, Jammu-Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and West Bengal.

The order comes on the day when Anna Hazare is to begin a movement from Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi demanding the appointment of the Lokpal.

The octogenarian Gandhian will go on an indefinite fast to demand the installation of a competent Lokpal and ensure better production cost for farm produce.

He has been at the forefront of the demand for Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayuktas in states since 2011. It was due to his agitation that some states appointed a Lokayukta. Hazare is also credited for being the force behind the passage of The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013.

Section 63 of the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013, states that every state shall establish a body to be known as the Lokayukta.

According to the PIL, filed by advocate and Delhi BJP leader Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013, received presidential assent on 1 January 2014 and came into force from 16 January 2014 but the executive has not established a Lokpal yet.