We respect the judgement: Moily on Thomas

Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily on Thursday said the government will respect the judgement passed by the Supreme Court stricking down the appointment of country’s chief corruption watchdog- CVC P J Thomas- and make rectifications, even as the Opposition said the Prime Minister must answer the nation on the issue.

Immediately after the judgement, that dealt a massive blow the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and the Prime Minister personally, there was uproar in Parliament and an explanation was demanded by BJP Rajya Sabha leader Arun Jaitley.

The first response of the government came from Veerappa Moily.

“We are here to rectify and move forward,” he told reporters, also confirming that Thomas has resigned immediately after the judgement.

“We would like to look at the judgement and them come out with a rectification,” he said, refusing to comment much on the issue.

In a historic judgement, the Supreme Court has struck down the apppointment of PJ Thomas as the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) of India on Thursday, dealing a major blow to the image of the embattled Prime Minister Manmohan Singh since the chief corruption watchdog of the nation was chosen by a panel headed by him.

Moily said many times executive orders are challenged and these are procedural things which are rectified later.

“At the moment we cannot talk of the pro and con,” he said when queried if the PM’s image took a serious beating following the verdict.

The court acted on a petition challenging appointment of Thomas as the country’s chief corruption watchdog since his past records on corruptions issues were not clean.

The court also found fault in the committee of the Prime Minister that appointed Thomas and said the government should have gone beyond his bio-data.

It expresses concerned over the appointment on the question of integrity and even suggested a judicial review of such appointments in future.

The CVC was appointed by the panel headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

In an immdiate reaction, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), whose leader Sushma Swaraj had opposed his appointment as one of the members of the panel, said the appointment was wrong from the very first day.

The dignity of the office of CVC has been restored, tweeted Sushma Swaraj soon after the SC verdict.

“This is the biggest blow to the UPA government. This is the biggest blow to Mr Manmohan Singh, to Sonia Gandhi, to the Congress party,” said BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy.

BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said the PM has to answer the nation and “we charge that he was retained because CVC controls the CBI”.

“His appointment was like a scheme,” said Prasad.

The Left parties said the PM and the Home Minister, who was also on the panel, must take responsibility.

“We stand vindicated since we were opposing him from the very beginning,” said Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Sitaram Yechuri.

The apex court bench was headed by Chief Justice SH Kapadia. The others in the bench are justices KS Radhakrishnan and Swatantar Kumar.

The petitioner?s counsel Prashant Bhushan pointed that the Leader of Opposition (Sushma Swarag), who is member of the panel that appoints the CVC, had opposed Thomas? appointment for the post.