governancenow.com, march 3, 2011
Their clean chit to Thomas led to the "illegal" appointment
* http://governancenow.com/sites/default/files/P.J.Thomas1.jpg
The apex court’s order setting aside appointment of P J Thomas as the central vigilance commissioner is actually an indictment of prime minister Manmohan Singh, home minister P Chidambaram and Thomas’ predecessor Pratyush Sinha. The PM and HM are at fault for forcing their way through Thomas’ appointment, despite objections from the third member, leader of opposition Sushma Swaraj, and former CVC for giving a vigilance clearance to Thomas at the time of his empanelment as secretary in 2008.
This will be evident if we look closely the grounds on which the apex court set aside Thomas’ appointment:
* The court said recommendation for appointment of Thomas by the selection panel was “illegal” since it didn’t consider the pending charge sheet in the palmolein case and hence, this recommendation “does not exist in law”;
* Thomas failed to qualify because of pending case and official notings for initiation of disciplinary proceedings against him;
* The plea that the CVC had given a vigilance clearance to Thomas in 2008 could not be the basis for empanelment for the CVC and
* The selection panel and other government agencies ignored the larger issue of institutional and personal integrity of the office of CVC.
It may be recalled that the government went ahead with Thomas appointment despite strong protest from Swaraj. The selection was defective for two reasons.
One, the panel ignored the pending criminal case against Thomas and this violated the 1997 apex court’s order in the Vineet Narain case which specifically mentioned that the person being considered for the post should have “impeccable integrity”.
Two, the selection would be on the basis of “consensus” but the government interpreted it to be “majority view”, rather than “unanimity”. This defeated the very purpose of including the leader of opposition in the selection panel.
In subsequent court case, which culminated in setting aside Thomas’ appointment, the government lied through its teeth saying that the selection panel had no knowledge of the pending criminal case.
Chidambaram issued a statement about a month ago, during his infamous spat with Swaraj, saying: “I reiterate that the Committee was aware of the palmolein case; that no sanction for prosecution of Shri Thomas had been granted since 1999; that the case was pending in the Trial Court; that the Supreme Court had stayed the trial of the case; and that the then CVC had granted vigilance clearance in respect of Shri Thomas”.
All this makes culpability of both PM and HM clear.
As for former CVC Pratyush Sinha, the government also defended its position in the court saying that it was right in empanelling and subsequently appointing Thomas because the CVC had, in 2008, given a vigilance clearance to him. Sinha was the CVC at the time and he too ignored the pending criminal charge sheet in the palmolein case to give a clean chit to Thomas.
This makes him guilty of gross impropriety.
As the apex court has said, everyone ignored the integrity of the institution of CVC as well as personal integrity of Thomas.
Thomas has done the right thing by tendering his resignation, which he has been resisting for quite some time.
Now is the time for the PM, HM and former CVC to own up their culpability.
We don’t expect PM and HM to resign but we expect them to take the moral responsibility and apologize to the nation for their gross misconduct. After all, CVC is the apex corruption watchdog of the country and they had, by their action, compromised that office.
Sinha has retired, making way for Thomas. He clearly compromised the office of the CVC while holding the august office. His apology is also in order.
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