SC reserves order in CVC Thomas case

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has reserved its order on the legality of the appointment of PJ Thomas as Central Vigilance Commissioner who is an accused in the palmolein import scam case. A bench headed by Chief Justice SH Kapadia reserved the order after hearing the arguments on behalf of the Centre, head of the country’s top anti-corruption watchdog and petitioners challenging his appointment to such post.

The court, however, during the course of the hearing, wanted to know, whether the Leader of the Opposition can have a veto power in the process of CVC's appointment.

Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj was one of the three members of the high-level panel headed by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and also comprising Union Home Minister P Chidambaram for the CVC's appointment.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, on behalf of petitioner NGO, Centre For PIL, however, said that the purpose of having the Leader of Opposition on the panel was to ensure that the government does not steamroll the selection process.