Typo in government circular lends curious touch to CVC appointment

NEW DELHI: Inviting nominations for the next Central Vigilance Commissioner on Monday, the government seems to have committed a typo that could reignite the controversy over Congress being denied the Leader of Opposition post.

As per the CVC Act of 2003, the CVC appointment is made by a committee comprising the Prime Minister, the home minister and the Leader of the Opposition. “For the purpose of this sub-section, ‘the Leader of the Opposition in the House of the People’ shall, when NO such leader has been so recognised, include the leader of the single largest group in opposition of the government in the House of the Pe o p l e, ” s ays Section 4 (1) of the CVC Act. This clearly implies that Congress’ Lok Sabha leader would be in the selection of the new CVC, even though he has not been bestowed with the Leader of Opposition title.

However, guidelines sent by Secretary (Personnel), SK Sarkar, to all secretaries of government on Monday, unwittingly introduced a typo in the operational sentence of the CVC Act, which can be interpreted to deny the Congress nominee the right to be part of the CVC selection process. “For the purpose of this sub-section, ‘the Leader of the Opposition in the House of the People’ shall when SO such leader has been so recognized, include the leader of the single-largest group in opposition of the Government in the House of the People,” the guidelines attached to Sarkar’s letter said. A senior DoPT official told ET it was only “an inadvertent mistake”.

The letter seeks nominations of persons “of known impartiality and integrity” for selection as the next CVC and Vigilance Commissioner as incumbents, Pradeep Kumar and JM Garg, complete their tenures in September.