CVC appointments will happen very soon: Union Government

NEW DELHI: "The appointments of chief and vigilance commissioner in the CVC will be done very soon," Union Minister Jitendra Singh said, here, today.

As far as the appointment of CVC is concerned, the matter has come up time and again, even in Parliament. The government was on the job. But there were some issues beyond the control of the government, the Minister of State for Personnel told reporters on the sidelines of a conference here.

"There was a court case and recently we had appeared before the court where all the records were also summoned. Now the court has given its go ahead. I am sure very soon the rest of the process will also be completed," Singh said.

The Supreme Court had last week lifted its embargo and allowed the Centre to go ahead with the appointment of Central Vigilance Commissioner and a Vigilance Commissioner from the list of candidates shortlisted by it.

The two posts have been lying vacant for past few months and the apex court had on December 17, 2014 asked the Centre to take its prior "leave" before going ahead with the appointment for which 10 candidates each have been shortlisted after scrutinising 130 applications received in response to the advertisement issued in this regard.

Central Vigilance Commissioner, Pradeep Kumar, and, Vigilance Commissioner, J M Garg, completed their term on September 28 and September 7, last year, respectively.

The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) is headed by a Central Vigilance Commissioner and has two Vigilance Commissioners. Rajiv, a former Director General of Central Industrial Security Force, is acting as interim chief of the transparency watchdog.

Earlier, the minister had said there was no deliberate, cautious or otherwise delay in the appointments of chief and vigilance commissioners. The process has already started and appointments will happen in due course, he had said.