The Supreme Court on Thursday struck a blow for Indian democracy. It quashed the appointment of P.J. Thomas as the Central Vigilance Commissioner, and thereby returned institutional integrity to the office. Thomas’s appointment had been controversial from the very beginning. In fact, apart from the 1992 palmolein imports case that has compelled this reversal, Thomas, as a former telecom secretary, had already offered to recuse himself from investigations into the...

Appointment to the post of Central Vigilance Commissioner “must satisfy not only the eligibility criteria of the candidate but also the decision making process of the recommendation. If a statutory body like the HPC [high power committee], for any reason whatsoever, fails to look into the relevant material having nexus to the object and purpose of the 2003 CVC Act or takes into account irrelevant circumstances, then its decision would...

Was palmolein case file given to selection committee, asks court The Department of Personnel did not place full facts about P.J. Thomas before the high-power committee that finalised his appointment as Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC), Attorney-General (AG) G.E. Vahanvati told the Supreme Court on Thursday. The department did not mention about a charge sheet that was pending against him in a palmolein import case and that the Kerala government had granted...

Besieged as it is by a spate of scams, the Centre has revived the 40-year-old proposal of setting up a national ombudsman called the Lokpal to probe political corruption. But, far from overcoming the existing deficiencies, the latest draft Bill – which could be promulgated any time soon as an ordinance - provides a legal veneer to them so that crooked politicians will continue to enjoy almost as much impunity...

The Centre on Monday strongly defended the appointment of controversial bureaucrat P J Thomas, facing a corruption case in a Kerala court, as central vigilance commissioner, saying he was an "outstanding officer" with "impeccable integrity". In an affidavit in the Supreme Court cleared by Attorney General G E Vahanvati, government also said there was no need for "consensus" of the three-member high powered committee on CVC's appointment. While Prime Minister Manmohan Singh...