Vigilance commissioner Rajiv is acting CVC chief

NEW DELHI: The government on Tuesday invoked an emergency clause to authorise vigilance commissioner Rajiv to act as the Central Vigilance Commissioner.

It is not clear, however, if he would be able to initiate the process of selection of senior officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation. The CVC has to initiate the selection procedure for appointment of top CBI officers and is tasked with short listing candidates.

Apart from the CBI director — who will demit office in early December — the CBI has vacancies at the rank of joint director and additional director.

The move is a last-ditch effort to ensure that delays in the CVC’s appointment do not halt work at the anti-corruption body.

The other vigilance commissioner, JM Garg, completed his tenure in early September. A former chief of the Central Industrial Security Force, Rajiv was left as the lone commissioner of the watchdog.

The CVC was left without a chief after Pradeep Kumar demitted office over the weekend on turning 65.

The Central Infor mation Commission too has been without a chief for over a month.

Sources attributed delays in the CIC’s appointment to the government’s intention to appoint the CVC and CIC around the same time. But the CVC’s appointment ran into trouble after the Supreme Court came down heavily on the government for the selection procedure tilted in favour of the civil servants.