CVC to be appointed soon: Jitendra Singh

The Chief Vigilance Commissioner and another Commissioner in the Central Vigilance Commission will be appointed soon, Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said today, days after the Supreme Court cleared the decks for the appointments.

"There was a court case and recently we had appeared before the court where all the records were also summoned. Now the court has given its go ahead. I am sure very soon the rest of the process will also be completed," Singh told reporters on the sidelines of a conference.

The two posts have been lying vacant for the last several months after CVC Pradeep Kumar and Vigilance Commissioner J M Garg completed their terms on September 28 and September 7 respectively last year.

The Supreme Court had last week lifted its embargo and allowed the Centre to go ahead with the appointment of CVC and a Vigilance Commissioner from the list of candidates shortlisted by it.

The apex court had on December 17, 2014 asked the Centre to take its prior "leave" before going ahead with the appointments for which 10 candidates each have been shortlisted after scrutinising 130 applications received in response to the advertisement issued in this regard.

The government's anti-corruption watchdog is headed by a Chief Vigilance Commissioner and has two Commissioners. Rajiv, a former Director General of Central Industrial Security Force, is currently acting as its interim chief in the absence of a regular CVC.