The Supreme Court today dismissed the petition challenging the appointment of KV Chowdary as Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) and TM Bhasin as Vigilance Commissioner..The judgment was delivered by a Bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Mohan M Shantanagoudar in a Public Interest Litigation filed by NGO Common Cause in July 2015..The petitioner had contended that the appointments were arbitrary and violative of the principle of “impeccable integrity”..It was argued that both Chowdary and Bhasin had blemished records and could not be said to have had “impeccable integrity” or “institutional integrity”. Additionally, the petitioner had also questioned the method by which these appointments were made, terming them “non-transparent”..While it was alleged by the petitioner that Chowdary had influenced the investigation into businessman Ponty Chaddha, Bhasin, according to the petitioner, was indicted by the CVC in 2013 for allegedly forging and tampering with important reports relating to the General Manager of the Indian Bank. It was also the case of the petitioner that Chowdary had some role to play in the ‘Coal Scam’..Advocate Prashant Bhushan appeared for the petitioner. The judgment in the case was reserved in September last year..Today, the Court found that there were no grounds to interfere with the appointments of Chowdary and Bhasin..Read the judgment below.
