Apex court refuses to quash CVC’s appointment

New Delhi, July 2: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to quash the appointments of Central Vigilance Commissioner K. V. Chowdary and vigilance commissioner T. M. Bhasin, saying such complaints accusing them of not having “clean record” cannot be taken on face value as these could be made even against “very honest persons”.

The apex court said it cannot interfere into the appointments of Chowdary and Bhasin as no grounds have been made to quash their appointments.

“We have not interfered with the appointments. The complaints against Chowdary were made and they were looked into. It is not for this court to decide on the choice,” a bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Mohan M Shantanagoudar said.

“We are nowadays in the scenario that such complaints cannot be taken on face value. Even against very honest persons, allegations can be made. Those days have gone when filing of the complaints was taken as serious aspersions on integrity. Ideally, there should not be any serious complaint as the filing of the same raises eyebrows. As in the instant matter, complaints have been looked into and we decline to interfere,” the bench said.

The court delivered the verdict on pleas challenging the appointment of Chowdary and Bhasin alleging that they did not have “clean record” and a non- transparent procedure was followed while appointing them.