Responding to the court’s notice in a petition seeking his removal as CVC, Thomas sought quashing of the petition saying he was an “outstanding officer” and a victim of “political battle”.
Charge-sheeted in Palmolive oil import scam, chief vigilance commissioner (CVC) PJ Thomas told the Supreme Court (SC) on Monday that he was a person of “impeccable integrity” and became a “victim of political battle”.
Responding to the court’s notice in a petition seeking his removal as CVC, Thomas sought quashing of the petition saying he was an “outstanding officer” and a victim of “political battle”.
Thomas’s lawyer Wills Mathew has also expressed gratitude towards the court for giving him an opportunity to defend him.
Earlier during the hearing of a petition filed by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) seeking removal of the scam-tainted CVC on December 6 last year, a bench headed by Chief Justice SH Kapadia wondered how a CVC could function when he was in the thick of serious allegations.
Responding to the Centre’s affidavit, CPIL general secretary Kamini Jaiswal said if the government’s argument that only “suitability” and not impeccable integrity was the criteria, then the government could put anyone it finds “suitable” at the helm of the anti-corruption watchdog.
The court has recently given a go-ahead to the trial in the oil scam case in which Thomas has been charge-sheeted. “He is facing imminent prosecution if the Centre grants prosecution sanction,” Jaiswal said.
Thomas’s appointment as CVC have come at a time when the “menace of all-pervasive corruption is eating into the vitals of the political system”, the CPIL counter-affidavit said.
“At a juncture when many scams and serious irregularities are surfacing in many government contracts/ allotments across all ministries and departments, the government chose to appoint a hand-picked official who himself is facing prosecution in a corruption case,” it said.
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