CVC gives clean chit to Western Coalfields Ltd's DC Garg

NEW DELHI: Giving a clean chit to DC Garg, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Western Coalfields Ltd, the Central Vigilance Commission ( CVC) told the Delhi High Court that "no vigilance case was found against him."

Appearing before a bench of justices S Ravindra Bhat and Najmi Waziri, the counsel for CVC said the Commission has filed its reply to the PIL which sought the removal of Garg on the ground that his tenure has been "illegally" extended six times without requisite approvals from CVC.

The counsel said that in the reply, which is yet to come on the court's record, that CVC said "it had conducted an inquiry and found no vigilance case against Garg."

Earlier, the bench had issued notices to Coal Ministry, Central Vigilance Commissioner, CBI and Garg on the petition filed by NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL).

The court had also asked Coal Ministry to be ready with the complete records of all the tenure extensions granted to Garg.

The PIL said "direct a Special Investigation Team (SIT)/CBI under the monitoring of this court to investigate the entire matter including officials of the Ministry of Coal and especially the role of the Minister of Coal and Joint Secretary, Ministry of Coal, who acted malafidely to repeatedly extend the tenure of Garg."

Besides seeking disciplinary action against Garg, the plea also sought a SIT or CBI probe into "allocation of tenders" and alleged irregularities committed by Garg.

It has been alleged that Garg's tenure has been extended "multiple times on an ad-hoc basis by the Ministry of Coal that too, without vigilance clearance which is an indispensable requirement for extension of tenure of officers," it said.