'In the end, officials in India will be thrown to the wolves, quietly released a couple of years down the road and we'll never hear about them again.'
The ministries have been asked to give details of any contracts that are valued at more than Rs 2 crore.
The new Chief Vigilance Commissioner Pradeep Kumar has spoken out in his first television interview since taking charge on July 14. In an exclusive interview with CNN-IBN, Kumar made it clear that there was no question of buckling under any kind of political pressure and that the battle against corruption will continue. The excerpts
P J Thomas, whose appointment as Chief Vigilance Commissioner was cancelled by President Pratibha Patil after the Supreme Court held it as illegal, has moved the Delhi high court seeking stay of the appointment of his successor who is being sworn in on Thursday.
The government on Thursday told the Supreme Court that once a bureaucrat is given a vigilance nod for appointment as secretary, no further clearance is required for empanelment for appointment as the central vigilance commissioner. "Once a person is appointed as secretary on clearance by the CVC, he can be considered for empanelment and no further inquiry is required," Attorney General G E Vahanvati submitted before a bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia.
Even as the United Progressive Alliance government continues to be in a tizzy over the Central Vigilance C's appointment, sources say that PJ Thomas has refused to quit, primarily because he feels that he is an honest man and because as the central vigilance commissioner he enjoys immunity against prosecution, particularly in corruption cases.
The bench said the petition has relied on a March 2 verdict of the apex court which had ruled that the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and ECs will be done by the President on the recommendation of a committee, comprising the prime minister, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha and the CJI, to maintain the "purity of election".
The anti-corruption watchdog posts have been vacant for the last nine months.
According to the cause list of August 20 uploaded on the apex court website, a bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra is scheduled to hear on Tuesday.
A 14-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped by three persons in Assam's Nagaon district, triggering massive protests by people on the streets.
Defending his appointment as central vigilance commissioner, P J Thomas on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that there was no sanction to prosecute him in the Palmolein import case. In an affidavit, submitted to the apex court, Thomas said that his name was considered for empanelment for the post after the Central Vigilance Commission had given a clearance for it. He also said he was the senior-most bureaucrat to be considered for the CVC's job.
A vigilance court in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday posted to January 25 the trial in the Palmolein import graft case, in which former chief minister and Congress stalwart late K Karunakaran and Central Vigilance Commissioner P J Thomas figure in the list of accused. When the case came up on Wednesday, the public prosecutor informed the court that first accused K Karunakaran was no more and he would file a report in this regard soon.
Soon after the incident, the police took cognisance of the video and initiated a probe, Meena said.
A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and N Kotiswar Singh, which issued notice on the plea of the Congress against the March 13 high court order, however, said the ITAT can proceed on the political party's appeal.
There is a great need to introduce a transparent process to select information commissioners, who are expected to oversee transparency, says former Central Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi.
The traffic police also issued an advisory in view of the protest planned outside the BJP office at the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, while entry and exit have been disallowed at the nearest ITO metro station.
The coming assembly and Lok Sabha elections -- the choice of candidates, the campaign strategies and the negotiations with other Opposition parties --0 represent the real test for Mallikarjun Kharge.
Police said there were intelligence inputs that attempts would be made to trigger violence during the match, because of which it was cancelled.
Two former CECs -- B B Tandon and T S Krishnamurthy -- were mandated to investigate the BSNL decision in the face of protest registered by Nokia-Siemens Network. The panel appointed by BSNL was duly approved by the chief vigilance commissioner. The complaint was referred to the panel after NSN, which was disqualified on technical grounds, alleged that the state-run telecom majors recent 93-million GSM lines tender was conducted in a non-transparent manner.
In the 56-page report released to the media after laying down office as Vigilance Commissioner, R C Samal accused three ministers and 18 senior All India Services (IAS, IPS and Indian Forest Service) officials of indulging in corrupt practices.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla recognised Rahul Gandhi as the leader of opposition on Wednesday, a day after the Congress communicated its decision to name him for the position to the Lok Sabha Secretariat.
The interim magisterial inquiry report and the MCD Karol Bagh zone superintending engineer report were submitted to revenue minister Atishi who alleged that the "bureaucracy" was showing "laxity" in investigating the death of the civil services aspirants.
'If, as happened in Baramulla during the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the youth in the Valley get triggered enough to jump into the wider fray, the end result would be difficult to predict, especially as the state's post-August 5, 2019 political format remains substantially fragmented and foggy,' points out Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the veteran commentator on Kashmir affairs.
President Pratibha Patil cancelled the appointment of P J Thomas on Monday as Central Vigilance Commissioner, 11 days after the Supreme Court quashed his selection by a high-power committee headed by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.
Dr Singh should explain his worries, concerns, hopes and determination to act to the people through the media, says B Raman
Congress rebel Jaganmohan Reddy's mother Vijayamma on Thursday met leaders of political parties seeking their support in her campaign against the alleged harassment of her jailed son and complained to Chief Vigilance Commissioner about the "ulterior motive" of CBI in the case.
'People are suffering, we are seeing visuals on every news channel. What measures have you taken to control water wastage if water scarcity is a recurring problem in summers'
Kharge termed the high-level committee constituted by the Centre to examine the feasibility of 'One Nation, One Election' a 'gimmick' and alleged the Modi government wants to slowly replace democracy in India with dictatorship.
With Bharatiya Janata Party demanding annulment of the government's decision to appoint Ranjit Sinha as the new Central Bureau of Investigation director, Minister of State for Personnel V Narayanasamy on Friday said his selection has been done "in a fair manner following the due process".
Late cartoonist Mario Miranda, actors Dharmendra and Shabana Azmi, top mathematician M S Raghunathan, former Chief Vigilance Commissioner N Vittal and industry leader B Muthuraman were among those conferred the Padma awards by President Pratibha Patil in New Delhi on Wednesday.
Central Vigilance Commissioner Pradeep Kumar will hold a high-level meeting on Tuesday to decide on the next Central Bureau of Investigation director.
Six IPS officers have been shortlisted for the post of the CBI director once incumbent A P Singh retires in November. Sheela Bhatt reports
Former Indian Space Research Organisation chief G Madhavan Nair and three other senior scientists, who were barred from holding any government posts, have been indicted by the country's top space body-appointed committee for acts of commission in the Antrix-Devas deal.
So far, CBI's investigations into the coal scam are highly superficial and limited to small fishes. It is unlikely to go deeper in the political connections, a source tells rediff.com
Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday described the Supreme Court's latest observations in the 2G spectrum case as the "second indictment" of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after the Chief Vigilance Commissioner fiasco and hoped that he will now draw the "right lessons" and not defend any corrupt minister.
The former central vigilance commissioner, PJ Thomas has remained tightlipped ever since the Supreme Court ruled his appointment as illegal. In this candid interview, Thomas's counsel, Wills Mathews, tells rediff.com that the President's order is unconstitutional and that the Supreme Court order itself was shocking, as it did not have the jurisdiction to pass such an order.
Welcoming the Supreme Court's verdict quashing P J Thomas' appointment as chief vigilance commissioner, Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan demanded the resignation of those "responsible" for his posting including Home Minister P Chidambaram.
After the Centre implemented the CAA on Monday, notifying the rules four years after the contentious law was passed, police in Delhi's northeast district identified 43 hotspots and conducted patrols there.
Government on Thursday said former Indian Space Research Organisation chief G Madhavan Nair was given a "due and adequate chance" by a high-level panel to put forth his views on the action taken against him in connection with irregularities in the Antrix-Devas deal.
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