Oath administration: How government decided to declare CVC senior to CIC

NEW DELHI: Who is senior in the table of precedence and gets the turn to take oath first: The Central Vigilance Commissioner or the Central Information Commissioner? This question bothered the government 24 hours before President Pranab Mukherjee was to administer oath to both on June 10.

According to information publicised by the DoPT, letters were exchanged between DoPT, MHA and President’s House as the home ministry discovered that both CVC and CIC posts did not find formal placement in the Central Table of Precedence (ToP).

A 1995 executive order was fished out by the home ministry, which had placed the CVC at Article 17 in ToP but no such order was traceable for the CIC. The home ministry finally took refuge in Article 23, equivalent to the ToP, which has a category of “retired secretary to the Government of India” to include CIC Vijai Sharma in it and rule that CVC would hence be positioned senior. Rashtrapati Bhavan was informed on June 9 and ultimately, CVC KV Chowdhary was administered oath before Sharma by President on June 10.

ToP is meant for state and ceremonial occasions and ranks 26 categories of dignitaries in order of seniority. Chowdhary and Sharma were recommended to President for being appointed as CVC and CIC, respectively, in June. A common oath-taking ceremony was planned by Rashtrapati Bhavan for June 10.

However, on June 9, the DoPT realised a problem and wrote to the home ministry. In a reply, home ministry said both CVC and CIC did not find any formal placement in ToP but the CVC was placed at Article 17 through executive instructions in year 1995. “Since CIC has not been included in the ToP formally or through executive instructions, the present CIC being a retired Secretary to Government of India, will be placed at Article 23 equivalent to ToP,” the Home Ministry wrote to DoPT.