New Delhi: Prashant Bhushan, eminent lawyer and co-founder Swaraj Abhiyan has opposed the selection of K.V. Choudary, former chairperson of the Central Board of Direct Taxes, as the next Central Vigilance Commissioner, (CVC) by a committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, alleging that he was “tainted” and not a proper choice for the post.
Mr Bhushan has challenged the process of the selection of the CVC and two vigilance commissioners. Last month, the Supreme Court, while permitting the Centre to go ahead with the selection, had asked the government to produce entire records including the names of all the candidates who had applied for the respective posts.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Mr Bhushan said that on coming to know that the government wanted to appoint Mr Choudary as the next CVC, he had written a letter to the PM on May 20 asking for a public disclosure of the names of the short-listed persons. He said, “Mr Choudary’s name figures four times in the list of persons who visited former CBI director Ranjit Sinha at his official residence.”
The Supreme Court on May 14 has said that Mr Sinha’s meetings and the impact of those meetings on cases being dealt by the CBI need to be investigated.
No relief for Subramanian Swamy
The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to grant immediate relief to BJP leader Subramanian Swamy from being arrested pursuant to a non-bailable warrant issued by a trial court in Assam for his hate speech made in March this year.
On May 21, Dr Swamy had moved the Supreme Court challenging certain provisions in the IPC relating to hate speech and seeking a declaration that they are unconstitutional as they violated freedom of speech and expression. A Bench of Justices A.K. Sikri and U.U. Lalit did not take up the matter as Justice Lalit recused himself from hearing and the petition was referred to the Chief Justice of India for posting it before another Bench.
On Tuesday, Dr Swamy told a vacation bench of Justices Prafulla C. Pant and Amitav Roy that the NBW had been issued for his arrest and pleaded for stay of the NBW as the main petition was pending consideration before the Apex Court.
