New Delhi: P J Thomas, whose appointment as
CVC 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.
In his writ petition filed yesterday, Thomas sought a
direction to the President not to issue any warrant of
appointment as Chief Vigilance Commissioner(CVC) to Defence
Secretary Pradeep Kumar without first deciding on his
representation to her against the judgement of the Supreme
Court.
Thomas in his representation to the President on March
16 had requested her to refer the decision of the Apex Court
to a Constitution Bench.
The President cancelled Thomas's appointment as Central
CVC on March 15, 11 days after the apex court order.
Pradeep Kumar(62) will be sworn-in as the new CVC by
President Patil at a ceremony in Rashtrapati Bhavan tomorrow.
"The main ground(in the HC petition) is that the
decision was delivered by a three-judge bench. We are
supporting the mandate of the Constitution that it should have
been by a five-judge bench," his counsel Wills Matthews said.
"The warrant of appointment of Thomas was cancelled only
on the basis of the said judgement. When the legality and the
validity of the judgement in itself is disputed it is our
humble view that only after reaching conclusion on the
legality and validity of the judgement, the respondent
(President) should go ahead with the appointment of new CVC,"
he said.
The Supreme Court had on March 3 quashed the appointment
of Thomas as CVC, as a chargesheet was pending against him in
a corruption case in Kerala. Thomas was appointed as CVC in
September 2010.
The counsel for Thomas cited Article 145 (3) of the
Constitution saying those issues connected with the
interpretation of the Constitution have to be decided by a
minimum five-judge bench.
"The President of India has also acted on the basis of
the said judgment. That is why we sent our reference to her,"
Matthews said.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, July 13, 2011, 11:35