"He (CAG) is having an unblemished service record as a civil servant," Attorney General G E Vahanvati, appearing for the Centre, told a bench of acting Chief Justice B D Ahmed and Justice Vibhu Bakhru.
The law officer objected to the submission of Prashant Bhushan, appearing for former Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami and eight other eminent citizens, that the present CAG has the "greatest degree" of conflict of interest in the country as he had been an "integral" part of defence deals during 2003 to 2013 which could be the subject matter of scrutiny in future by the top auditing body.