Pradeep Kumar swears-in as the new CVC

New Delhi, Jul 14: After the murky controversy on the Chief Vigilance Commissioners' (CVC) office, the chair has finally been occupied by former Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar. He was sworn in as the new CVC on Thursday. The post was vacant since the Supreme Court quashed PJ Thomas' appointment.

Pradeep Kumar took his oath of office administered by President Pratibha Patil. He is a 1972 batch IAS officer from the Haryana cadre. The oath-taking ceremony was held in a brief function at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The function was attended by Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth, Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi, Minister of State for Department of Personnel and Training V Narayansamy and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj.

Former CVC PJ Thomas had earlier sought an reply to the representation submitted by his counsel in the Supreme Court before the appointment of the new CVC. The apex body had on Mar 3 quashed the appointment of Thomas citing irregularities in his appointment and also on his getting involved in the palmolein case in Kerala.

The new CVC was chosen unanimously by a panel comprising Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Home Minister P Chidambaram and Opposition leader Sushma Swaraj. His tenure in office will be for a period of three years.

OneIndia News