NEW DELHI: The government has appointed former IAS officer and secretary to the President Sanjay Kothari as the central vigilance commissioner. Former information and broadcasting secretary and senior-most information commissioner Bimal Julka was named the central information commissioner.
The decision to fill the two top posts was taken at meeting of the respective selection panels comprising PM Narendra Modi, leader of the largest opposition party in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday.
While the CVC’s post was vacant since the retirement of KV Chowdary in June last year and vigilance commissioner Sharad Kumar had been holding charge, the CIC’s post has been vacant for more than a month following Sudhir Bhargava’s retirement in January Chowdhury is said to have raised objections to anomalies in the selection process and infirmities in the search committee. He termed the appointment as unconstitutional and illegal but refrained from submitting a formal dissent note.
Congress on Wednesday slammed the government and claimed that both “procedure and propriety” were “thrown to the winds at the level of the PM and home minister”. “We demand that the entire process be scrapped in its entirety and a de novo process started by inviting applications afresh. There needs to be proper application of mind,” Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said, pointing to the “anomaly” that a member of the search committee — former finance secretary Rajiv Kumar — was also an applicant for the post of CVC.
The decision to fill the two top posts was taken at meeting of the respective selection panels comprising PM Narendra Modi, leader of the largest opposition party in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday.
While the CVC’s post was vacant since the retirement of KV Chowdary in June last year and vigilance commissioner Sharad Kumar had been holding charge, the CIC’s post has been vacant for more than a month following Sudhir Bhargava’s retirement in January Chowdhury is said to have raised objections to anomalies in the selection process and infirmities in the search committee. He termed the appointment as unconstitutional and illegal but refrained from submitting a formal dissent note.
Congress on Wednesday slammed the government and claimed that both “procedure and propriety” were “thrown to the winds at the level of the PM and home minister”. “We demand that the entire process be scrapped in its entirety and a de novo process started by inviting applications afresh. There needs to be proper application of mind,” Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said, pointing to the “anomaly” that a member of the search committee — former finance secretary Rajiv Kumar — was also an applicant for the post of CVC.
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