SC raps govt for 'unfair' CVC selection process

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday said the Centre’s approach to shortlisting candidates for selection of central vigilance commissioner (CVC) appeared to have been vitiated because of lack of uniformity in the shortlisting process.
Denying that CVC selection process was in its final stages, the Centre said it was not even halfway through shortlisting 20 candidates from nearly 120 names and that it was being done at various levels – by the cabinet secretary and 36 secretaries of other departments individually.
Attorney general Mukul Rohatgi said “competence and integrity” was the core shortlisting criteria and that the list of 120 would be pruned to 20, which would then be shortened to five by the minister in charge of department of personnel for putting it up before the selection committee consisting of the prime minister, home minister and leader of opposition in Lok Sabha or leader of the largest party in opposition.
The AG requested that the process of short-listing be allowed to go on but informed the court that the government would not select the CVC till the apex court decided the application and the petition on the process of CVC selection.
He said shortlisting could take at least another month. The bench said if it came to the conclusion that the process was vitiated, then the entire shortlisting would have to be junked.
The AG’s response to a PIL alleging that the NDA government was adopting a non-transparent and restrictive approach in selecting the CVC did not go down well with the bench comprising Chief Justice R M Lodha and Justices Kurian Joseph and R F Nariman.
The bench faulted the procedure adopted by the Centre on two grounds – restricting nominations to those by secretaries and allowing them to do preliminary shortlisting – even though the AG said the process could be broad-based by allowing aspirants to apply for the post through ministries concerned.
The bench said, “In India, good talents do not get exposure, many do not even get a chance to compete. How do you get to choose from among the best talents by restricting the nominations to the secretaries? The problem is that effective shortlisting is entrusted to the cabinet secretary and 36 other secretaries. Each of them will have individual approach for shortlisting. It will not be fair to adopt different shortlisting criteria for a post. When 37 of them do individual shortlisting, will there be uniformity? The entire selection process will be vitiated because of lack of uniformity.”
It fixed final hearing on the application by NGO ‘Centre for Integrity, Governance and Training in Vigilance Administration’ for October 14 and asked the Centre to file its response affidavit in two weeks.
But the Centre appeared reluctant to issue a public advertisement for the CVC’s post saying it somehow did not go with the stature of the post. “Shortlisting is being done by the most experienced bureaucrats adopting the process that was employed before. The idea is to get the best person for the job and not to get saddled with thousands of applications,” Rohatgi said.