India-Forums.TV

[aryan]

NEW DELHI: Congress on Thursday appeared resigned to Supreme Court quashing P J Thomas's appointment as chief vigilance commissioner following government's admission that the fact that a chargesheet was pending against him was not shared with the Prime Minister and others on the selection panel.

Sources in the party said, just like attorney general G E Vahanvati, that Thomas's continuation depended on whether the court treats the denial of information to the selection panel as a violation of procedure.

The BJP pounced upon the disclosure to attack the government anew, but the development can also provide the Congress a way out of the dilemma about what to do with the CVC. Its public defence of Thomas notwithstanding, it had tried to get him to resign. Its efforts came to naught because the CVC refused to quit after having indicated, sources claim, that he would not cause further embarrassment to the government and the party.

Reacting to the development, party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said, "It is for the court." He was unhappy with the opposition and media for criticizing the government. "Bang in the middle of proceedings in the apex court, none of us should comment on the merits in any manner. Whatever the court decides will be known in due course."

He rejected Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj's charge that the government had misled the court on Thursday by claiming that the panel was not aware of Thomas being chargesheeted in the palmolein import case. Swaraj claimed she had pointed out the existence of the chargesheet to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and home minister P Chidambaram when they met to discuss Thomas's appointment.

Singhvi pointed out that Vahanvati 's response was to a specific query from the court as to whether the palmolein case papers were circulated in the meeting and he rightly stated that they were not.