New Delhi: Ending all speculations, former Central Board Of Direct Taxation (CBDT) chief KV Chowdary has been appointed as the Central Vigilance Commissioner while senior most Information Commissioner Vijai Sharma has been appointed the new Chief Information Commissioner.
In April, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party vice president Rahul Gandhi had attacked the Prime Minister over the delay in the appointments of chiefs of CIC, CVC and Lokpal saying the government feared transparency. Many RTI activists had also questioned the delay in the appointments.
Senior lawyer Ram Jethmalani has criticised the Narendra Modi government's decision to appoint KV Chowdary as the CVC saying that if the need be, he will challenge the appointment in the Supreme Court. Jethmalani had written a letter to President Pranab Mukherjee to not approve the appointment.
"CVC should be a man of unimpeachable integrity and Chowdary doesn't satisfy that description. There is evidence of enquiries against Chowdary and will provide evidence if the Prime Minister asks for it. The Prime Minister should ask me, I have written to the President, it's their duty to talk to me. The appointment is important and it's a subject to decision of court. This matter will be thrashed out in the Court," Jethmalani had said.
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 were 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 had received about 130 applications for the two posts.
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