Thaindian News

New Delhi, Feb 3 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Thursday again questioned the government on the appointment of PJ Thomas as Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC).

Hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that challenged the appointment of Thomas as CVC, the apex court asked the Centre if Thomas’ service file was considered by the Prime Minister’s panel that appointed him, and if that file had any details of the Palmolein case.

Further commenting on the procedure of appointment of CVC, the apex court said that in future, it should be streamlined and the totality of the circumstances should be taken into account.

“The government can’t leave a matter hanging for seven years,” it added.

Attorney General G E Vahanvati, defending the appointment of Thomas, told the apex court that ‘filing of a charge sheet is not a stigma’ and that ‘the Leader of Opposition doesn’t have veto power’.

The Government earlier on January 27 told the Supreme Court that the selection committee was not aware of the case pending against PJ Thomas.

This was stated by Attorney General Vahanvati before a bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia, which wanted to know if the issue of sanction and the charge sheet against Thomas was presented before the three-member committee headed by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh selected him for the assignment.

The response of Attorney General came on a question from the bench whether the material relating to the charge sheet and sanction was presented before the committee.

Centre for Public Interest Litigation, an NGO and others had challenged Thomas’ appointment as the CVC, quoting the Palmolein import corruption case in which Thomas is an accused.

The Supreme Court had asked the government to answer several questions on the appointment of Thomas as the Central Vigilance Commissioner while he was facing corruption charges. (ANI)