After appointment as Secy, no more CVC clearance needed: Govt

New Delhi, Feb 3 (PTI) The government today told theSupreme Court that once a bureaucrat is given a vigilance nodfor appointment as secretary, no further clearance is requiredfor empanelment for appointment as Central VigilanceCommissioner.

"Once a person is appointed as secretary on clearanceby CVC, he can be considered for empanelment and no furtherinquiry is required," Attorney General G E Vahanvati submittedbefore a bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia.

Vahanvati made the submission while responding tovarious questions by the bench, which also sought his view onthe criteria of impeccable integrity required for appointmentas Central Vigilance Commissioner.

"Impeccable integrity is an important requirement,"Vahanvati said, responding to queries from the bench.

But as the bench asked, "Does it apply to all caseswhere there is a stigma of chargesheet", the attorney generalsaid, "This is a grey area."

The law officer contended that filing of thechargesheet is not a stigma when the bench posed a question.

The court wanted to know if a bureaucrat, accordedvigilance clearance for appointment as secretary, does notrequire any further examination for appointment for postsabove that of the secretary.

During the hearing, advocate Prashant Bhushan,appearing for the Centre for Public Interest litigation, whichhas moved the court challenging appointment of P J Thomas asCVC, said various factors about the Palmolein import case werenot before the CVC when it gave vigilance clearance to Thomas.

The CVC had not taken into account the chargesheetpending against him, he claimed, adding the issue of sanctionfor his prosecution by the state government was not broughtbefore the anti-corruption watchdog.

The case diary was also not brought before the CVC, hesaid, contending that the report of the committee of publicundertaking in Kerala was also not presented before it.

"The CVC gave clearance to Thomas only on the basis ofthe note placed before it by the Department of Personnel andTraining," he said. .