Thomas to file review petition

SC shouldnt have quashed appointment: Counsel

“The Supreme Court has the power to initiate the proceedings for the removal of CVC only on a reference made by the President. Since there is no reference in the present matter, and I fear whether the SC exercised jurisdiction on an issue in which it was not having the power,” Thomas’s counsel Wills Mathews said.

 He said that  the review petition would be filed shortly in case the Central government failed to do so.

The apex court should not have quashed Thomas’s appointment without  allowing him to establish his innocence in this matter or  in the palmolein case, Mathews said.
The review petition has to be considered by a larger Constitution Bench in the light of Article 146 (3) under which a minimum number of judges to decide any case involving a substantial question of law must be  five, he added.

The SC had quashed the appointment of Thomas as CVC, holding that the recommendation made by the high-power panel headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did not consider the chargesheet against him in a corruption case in Kerala in the 1990s.

 The appointment made by a  three-member committee was struck down by the apex court terming it as  “non-est”(non-existence) in law.

It had allowed a contention of the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) stating that he could not be appointed to the post in view of the pending criminal case.