On 13th May, 2015, 3-judge bench of the Supreme Court, comprising of Chief Justice H.L. Dattu, Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Amitava Roy, vacated its earlier stay dated 17 December, 2014, and allowed the Government of India to proceed further for the appointment of the Chief Vigilance Commission (CVC) and the Vigilance Commissioner (VC). This order was passed in a writ petition filed by the NGO Center For Integrity, Governance and Training in Vigilance Administration. The NGO was represented by its lawyer Shri Prashant Bhushan, whereas the Government of India was represented by the Attorney General Shri Mukul Rohatgi and the Solicitor General Shri Ranjit Kumar.
The Supreme Court passed the following order:
“By our order dated 17.12.2014, while recording the submissions made by Shri Mukul Rohatgi, learned Attorney General for India, we had stated that they can proceed with the selection process, but before any appointments are made, they should take the leave of the Court.
Learned Attorney General would request us to permit them to proceed further in the matter in accordance with Section 4(1) of the Central Vigilance Commission Act, 2003 (for short,“the Act”).
Keeping in view the urgency and importance of the appointments of the Central Vigilance Commissioner and the Vigilance Commissioner, which are kept vacant from the last few months, we permit them to proceed further in accordance with Section 4(1) of the Act.
After such appointments are made, the learned Attorney General would produce a copy of the order and the entire original record before this Court.
All the contentions of both the parties are left open.
Call this matter after the ensuing summer vacation.”
As mentioned above, vide its previous order dated 17 December, 2015, the Supreme Court had earlier permitted the Government to continue the process of selection of CVC and VC, but had directed that permission of the Supreme Court would have to be taken before appointment is made. The above order dated 13th May 2015 now allows the Government to proceed with the appointment of the CVC and VC. It is pertinent to point out that the Attorney General had informed the Supreme Court that the Government had received 135 applications for the CVC post and that the list of names was now ready to be placed before the Committee comprising of Prime Minister, the home minister and the leader of opposition.
It may be noted that the Central Vigilance Commission consists of the Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) and two Vigilance Commissioners (VC’s). At present, the post of the CVC and one post of VC are lying vacant for several months. At present, only one VC is appointed to the Central Vigilance Commission, namely Shri Rajiv who is a former IPS officer of 1975 batch of Uttar Pradesh cadre. With this order of the Supreme Court, the Commission can now hope to have all its 3 members appointed to it.
