Govt may put on hold CVC, Lok Pal appointments - Livemint

Jitendra Singh, minister of state for personnel, public grievances and pensions. Photo: Hindustan Times

New Delhi: The three-month-old Narendra Modi government on Tuesday hinted at putting on hold key appointments to statutory bodies like the central vigilance commission (CVC) and the head of the anti-corruption watchdog Lok Pal as it seeks technical advice from the Parliament secretariat in the absence of a leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, who has a say in the selection of candidates to such posts.

This was implied by minister of state for personnel, public grievances and pensions Jitendra Singh at a press conference to mark 100 days of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government, which completed the milestone on 3 September.

“As far as the appointment of the CVC is concerned, the CVC (Pradeep Kumar ) is still there. He is to retire at the end of September and we will take a call when that happens,” Singh told reporters in New Delhi.

The appointment of the CIC (chief information commissioner), Singh said, was “in the process, we will very soon have that (appointment)”.

When asked how the appointments could go ahead in the absence of a leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, Singh said: “We have this problem (of not having a leader of the opposition or LoP). We sought the opinion of the secretariat of the Lok Sabha as to what should be the ideal way of proceeding ahead in this matter and I think soon we will have a conclusive opinion about this. I don’t wish to speculate.”

But he acknowledged that the Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition were key people in the committees to select the CVC, CIC and the Lok Pal.

Following the April-May general elections, the BJP came to power with a clear majority of 282 members in the 543-member Lok Sabha, while the Congress party, which had been in power for a decade between 2004 and 2014, was reduced to 44 MPs.

To bag the position of the Leader of the Opposition, a party has to win at least 10% of the seats in the Lok Sabha for its candidate to qualify for the post of LoP.

But given that it is still the largest opposition group in the Lok Sabha, the Congress has been staking its claim for the position although the Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan has rejected the demand. The matter is now pending before the courts.

According to the Central Vigilance Commission Act of 2003, the Prime Minister heads the committee that selects the CVC. The panel also includes the home minister and the leader of the opposition.

But when “no such Leader has been so recognized”, the Act says that the “Leader of the single largest group in opposition of the Government in the House of the People” would be regarded as the LoP.

The act further states that “no appointment of a Central Vigilance Commissioner or a Vigilance Commissioner shall be invalid merely by reason of any vacancy in the Committee”. In the case of the Lok Pal, or the anti-corruption ombudsman, a selection panel of five members, comprising the Prime Minister, the speaker of the Lok Sabha, LoP, the Chief Justice of India and an eminent jurist are to decide on the appointment under the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act of 2013.

And like in the case of the CVC Act, this also states that no appointment “shall be invalid merely by reason of any vacancy in the selection committee”.

In the case of the chief information commissioner and information commissioners, the President of India is to appoint the former on the recommendation of a committee consisting of the Prime Minister, leader of the opposition, and a cabinet minister nominated by the Prime Minister, according to the CIC Act.

It goes to clarify that “where the Leader of Opposition in the House of the People has not been recognized as such, the Leader of the single largest group in opposition of the Government in the House of the People shall be deemed to be the Leader of Opposition”.