The government on Thursday told the Supreme Court the issue of the chargesheet against Central Vigilance Commissioner P J Thomas in a corruption case and sanction granted by the Kerala government for his prosecution were not brought before the high-powered committee for selecting a candidate for the post.
This was stated by Attorney General Goolam E Vahanvati before a bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia, which wanted to know if the issue of sanction and the chargesheet against Thomas was presented before the three-member committee headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. “It was not before the committee. The material pertaining to the sanction for prosecution under section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code was not before the committee. The bio-data did not reflect this aspect before the committee,” the attorney general said.
The response of Vahanvati came on a question from the bench on whether the material relating to the chargesheet and sanction was presented before the committee.
“We are not going into the merits of the case. We want to know whether the material pertaining to the chargesheet and the sanction were brought before the committee or not. We want to know whether relevant material were brought before the committee and whether these documents were brought were before it,” the bench, also comprising K S Radhakrishnan and Swantanter Kumar said.
“We want to know whether the correct procedure was followed or the procedure was vitiated,” it said and asked, “How many people were in the zone of selection for the CVC?”
It also said it wanted to know about details of the empanelment. The bench said it was making it clear that these aspects had to be examined at the very threshold. “We want to know whether relevant material was considered by the high-powered committee at the threshold or not,” it said. “This is the priority on which we will go and not on the merits of the case.”
The bench told counsel Prashant Bhushan, who is representing the petitioner, Centre for Public Interest Litigation, that while the attorney general has answered its questions, he will have to now give his arguments on the selection issue.
“Now the AG has said. You tell us whether this vitiates the process for selection,” the bench said. Bhushan questioned the stand of the government on the issue of sanction, asking, “How will Thomas function as CVC when a sword is hanging over his head?” The bench said it would also like to go into the files relating to his appointment.The attorney general in turn said all the four files will be placed before the court. Bhushan had said the files pertaining to the chargesheet against Thomas in a corruption case were not placed before the three-member panel of the Prime Minister, Home Minister P Chidambaram and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj.
Govt feels CVC should quit on his own
Embarrassed by the developments in the CVC case in the Supreme Court on Thursday, the government appears to be veering to the view that controversial P J Thomas should voluntarily resign from the post.
Law Minister M Veerappa Moily met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday hours after the Supreme Court was told by Attorney General G E Vahanvati that the Committee which selected Thomas was not aware of charges against him in the two-decade-old palmolein oil import case.
Later Vahanvati clarified that, “It was never stated by me that this matter pertaining to Palmolein Oil case was not discussed by the members of the committee (headed by the Prime Minister).”
Officials said the meeting between Moily and the Prime Minister did not relate to the issue of CVC. Highly placed sources in the government said given the turn of events and controversies surrounding Thomas, it would be better if he voluntarily stepped down from his office, to which he was appointed on September 7 last year, to avoid a situation in which the apex court might pass strictures or even strike down his appointment.
The other course, the sources said, would be to initiate the process of his removal through Presidential reference.
The government came under sharp attack from the Opposition after the AG’s statement before the Supreme Court.
