Responding to an RTI application, the Narendra Modi-led central government has reportedly said that there is no procedure to file a complaint against the Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) and the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and any such complaints against them “will be processed only after guidelines are finalised”.
The CVC act was passed in 2003 and no guidelines on this have been framed in the last 15 years. This means that there is currently no process to review the conduct of and decisions made by the CVC, the IE report said.
Indian Express reported that in response to an RTI filed by Indian Forest Service officer and Magsaysay award winner Sanjiv Chaturvedi, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said, “process for framing guidelines to handle grievances/complaints against Chief Vigilance Commissioner/Vigilance Commissioners has been initiated by DoPT.”
Chaturvedi had earlier written to the President Ram Nath Kovind about alleged corruption in AIIMS that Chaturvedi was probing before the investigation was allegedly scuttled by CVC KV Chowdary.
In his latest letter to the President on January 14, Chaturvedi had said, “How long this process will last as DoPT had intimated the same status in October 2018 & then again in January 2019 and on this ground alone they have declined to process the complaint of undersigned, which otherwise was solely based on irrefutable documentary evidence. This de facto immunity granted to CVC is not only contrary to the provisions of parent Act- CVC Act, 2003 but also against basic principles of ‘rule of law’ and ‘accountability’ regarding functioning of one of the most important public institution of the country, which is being run at great cost to public exchequer,” reported IE.
Chaturvedi had filed complaints against CVC Chowdary on July 15, 2017 and with reminders in August 2017 and January 2018 to the President who forwarded them to the DoPT, IE reported.
The CVC has many allegations against him and his conduct during the Alok Verma saga had come under major fire. Retd. Justice AK Patnaik, who was appointed the monitor of the CVC probe against then CBI Director Verma, had disassociated himself from the inquiry report, saying that the final findings in the CVC report were based only on CBI Special Director Rakesh Asthana’s complaint. The report was relied upon by the PM Narendra Modi-led high-power committee to remove Verma as the CBI chief.
Another report by The Wire had claimed that in October 2018 the CVC had visited Verma at the latter’s residence, in order to lobby that Verma should withdraw the bribery FIR filed against Asthana.
Also Read: 8 Things You Must Know About CVC KV Chowdary’s Dubious Record