New Delhi: Even as the government is finalising the names for the post of Chief Vigilance Commissioner and Chief Information Commissioner, there is a row brewing over the possible appointees. Senior Lawyer Prashant Bhushan has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi objecting to former Central Board Of Direct Taxation (CBDT) chief KV Chowdary being the frontrunner for the Central Vigilance Commissioner's post.
Bhushan has said that Chowdary's name figures four times in the list of people who visited former Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) chief Ranjit Sinha at his residence. The Supreme Court had said that Sinha's meetings need to be investigated as they may have impacted the 2G and coal scam probes.
The Central government had on Monday finalised the names for the chiefs of Central Information Commissioner (CIC) and Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and is likely to announce the same after the approval of President, who will be back in Delhi on Thursday.
Senior most Information Commissioner Vijai Sharma is tipped to be new Chief Information Commissioner and former CBDT chief KV Chowdary is expected to be the new Central Vigilance Commissioner. The appointment of CVC is essential for appointments to key posts lile that of CBI chief.
Prime Minister Modi had chaired the meeting yesterday to decide the new names. The meeting was attended by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi, party vice president Rahul Gandhi along with several RTI activists had questioned the delay in appointments of chiefs of CIC, CVC and Lokpal by the Modi government.
The CIC, which is mandated to resolve appeals and complaints filed against government departments or public authorities by information seekers under the Right to Information Act, has been working without a chief for over nine months, after the tenure of CIC Rajiv Mathur ended on August 22, 2014.
Sources said there are 203 applicants, including all seven information commissioners, for the post of the Chief Information Commissioner and 553 for the post of information commissioners. Under the RTI Act, the CIC has one chief and 10 information commissioners.
In CVC, the term of Central Vigilance Commissioner Pradeep Kumar had ended on September 28, 2014, while vigilance commissioner JM Garg completed his tenure on September 7. Sources said the government has received about 130 applications for the two posts.
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