Journalism of Courage
File notings regarding the appointment of K V Chowdary as Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) and T M Bhasin as Vigilance Commissioner (VC) reveal that the selection committee — headed by the Prime Minister — “was of the view that the allegations” made in a PIL “were not substantiated.”
In response to an RTI filed by The Indian Express, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has provided the list of all 12 names for the post of CVC and all 10 names for the post of VC that were shortlisted by Committee of Secretaries, besides file notings regarding these appointments.
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File notings said that in KV Chowdary’s case the representations received from Prashant Bhushan, Anil Kumar Agrawal and Ram Jethamlani were “sent earlier to Department of Revenue, Intelligence Bureau and CBI for their comments. The above letters and comments of the agencies concerned were placed before the Committee.”
According to the DoPT, total 132 applications were received for these posts out of which 56 were for post of CVC and 64 were for the post of VC.
Twelve applications were received post the deadline for applying.
It also turns out that the Committee of Secretaries, in its meeting dated May 20 this year, decided to obtain further information about KV Chowdary, Parvez Dewan, Sudhir Krishna, DK Sikri, Ashish Bahuguna and Gauri Kumar for the post of CVC. Other candidates who were shortlisted for this post were Madhav Lal, PK Malhotra, SK Sarkar and Ashok Thakur.
Committee had also asked for further details about Tejendra Mohan Bhasin and Arvamudan Krishna Kumar for the post of VC. Besides them Ashish Bahuguna, SK Srivastava, SK Beri, Arun Kumar Misra, Shafi Alam, Kanwal Singh Mehra and SK Sinha were also shortlisted for the post.
According to the file notings, for the VC’s post there were three applicants with experience in finance and banking sector, five applicants from companies owned by the central government. Out of the total candidates, 48 were from the civil services.
For the post of CVC, there were 64 applicants including two from finance and banking sector, 19 from central government owned companies and 43 from the civil services.
The search committee was headed by then Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth, DoPT Secretary Sanjay Kothari and Financial Services Secretary Hasmukh Adhia.
The Selection Committee, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, included Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Leader of the Congress party in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge.
