The appointment of P.J. Thomas as CVC is becoming curious with every hearing in the Supreme Court as the government on Thursday admitted that details of the chargesheet against him in palmolein scam case and other related material was not placed before the CVC when it cleared his name for empanelling for selection as secretary at the Centre in 2008.
The 2008 CVC clearance in fact had formed the basis for Mr Thomas’ selection as Chief Vigilance Commissioner in September 2010 as according to the procedure laid down, there was no need for any fresh clearance by the CVC for any secretary-rank officer when selected for some other important post.
Attorney General G.E. Vahanvati made a statement to this effect before a bench of Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia and Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and Swatanter Kumar when the court specifically asked whether the details of the chargesheet, the Kerala high court order permitting prosecution to go ahead with the trial and other related details of palmolein scam case were placed before the CVC.
Mr Vahanvati, who said that only a report prepared by the department of personnel and training was placed before the CVC, defended the government decision. He said as the CVC had assessed the palmolein case papers in 2005 when the issue related to the withdrawal of sanction against Mr Thomas and other IAS officer Jiji Thomson came before it, hence there was no requirement of placing these documents again before the CVC. “It is not relevant once he (Mr Thomas) is given the clearance by the CVC for appointment as secretary (at the Centre), no further inquiry is required,” Mr Vahanvati asserted.
But not satisfied with the explanation, the CJI said: “In that case, we would like to see the entire CVC records,” and the AG agreed to produce all the related files on February 7 when the hearing would resume.
The AG further explained that the Kerala government had appointed Mr Thomas as chief secretary in 2007 on the basis of the 2005 assessment of the palm oil case papers by the CVC, there was no “need” for the DOPT to place the same again before it.
However, the court said: “If the CVC has not seen them (the case papers), then it can’t say that no case is made out (against Mr Thomas).”