JOIN USThe Supreme Court on Thursday asked the government why only those who had applied for the posts were considered for appointment of central vigilance commissioner (CVC) and vigilance commissioner (VC).
“This is a very serious issue that you are inviting applications like this. If a person of impeccable integrity will not apply, he cannot become a CVC or VC,” a bench of Justices Arun Mishra and M M Shantanagoudar said.
There may be many people who are more eligible than those selected for this post, the bench added.
The court was hearing a plea challenging the appointment of incumbent CVC, K V Chaudhary, and VC T M Bhasin. Advocate Prashant Bhushan had contended they did not have “clean record” and a non-transparent procedure was followed while appointing
them.
Attorney General K K Venugopal, however, said that many allegations could be levelled against the persons who were appointed to such posts. Every aspect was considered by the selection committee
comprising the prime minister, home minister and the leader of Opposition before selecting the persons for the posts of CVC and VC, he
said.
Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the government, said that details of every candidate, who had applied for the posts of CVC and VC, were checked by the vigilance department and, Chaudhary and Bhasin were given clearances by the agencies.
During the hearing, Bhushan alleged that Chaudhary, being a senior official of the income tax department, had not taken any action in the controversial Nira Radia phone tapping case”, she said.
The bench, however, said “that is not for us to go into the Radia case”.