Im victim of political rivalry: Thomas

Faced with a question from the Supreme Court about his integrity to continue as Central Vigilance Commissioner,P J Thomas on Monday said he has been but merely an unfortunate victim of political rivalry for over 20 years of his career in civil services.

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Faced with a question from the Supreme Court about his integrity to continue as Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC),P J Thomas on Monday said he has been but merely an unfortunate victim of political rivalry for over 20 years of his career in civil services.

In an affidavit largely drawing strength from the Centres stand that appointing the CVC is entirely the domain of the government and not the courts,Thomas supported the governments argument that the current litigation is not maintainable as it invites the Supreme Courts scrutiny into his suitability.

To my knowledge and belief,there is no violation of the provisions of the Central Vigilance Commission Act,2003 nor was any legal provisions breached,and the appointment of the deponent was in conformity with the scheme of the Central Vigilance Act,2003, the affidavit said,reiterating the governments stand on him in court.

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The affidavit comprised Thomass answer to a question by a three-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia whether he,an accused in the palmolein corruption case,is endowed with the quality of impeccable integrity required of the CVC.

The court is hearing petitions filed by an NGO,Centre for Public Interest Litigation,and some eminent persons including former chief election commissioner J M Lyngdoh against the CVCs appointment

As an accused chargesheeted in the palmolein import case,Thomas said his is an unfortunate case of being caught in the middle of a political battle which arose between the former Chief Minister of Kerala,Sri K Karunakaran,and the present Chief Minister,Sri Achuthanandan.

Again,arming himself with stand taken by the UPA government,Thomas sought a direction from the court to seek quashing of the prosecution launched against him.

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On allegations against him in the 2G spectrum allocation,Thomas submitted that he was appointed as Secretary of the Department only on October 1,2009 several months after the allocation of spectrum.

Without a word on the alleged irregularities committed by then minister A Raja,Thomas confined to saying that he only played the limited administrative role of forwarding the request of the minister to the law ministry.

The request for the opinion was routed through the deponent (Thomas) to the Ministry of Law and Justice,that opinion was received only after the swearing in of the deponent as the Central Vigilance Commissioner on September 7,2010, he contended.

The CVC reacted strongly to the use of words like,dishonest,dubious and suspect when referring to his integrity. He went on to state that while allegations were flying thick and fast against him,there has still been no such finding or assertion by a single judicial or administrative authority.

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Praying to the court to look into the facts,he hoped that his name may not remain tarnished forever for no fault of his.