New Delhi, Mar 4: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh accepted responsibility on Friday for the appointment of P J Thomas as Central Vigilance Commissioner.
He said he respected the Supreme Court's verdict which on Thursday had declared Thomas' appointment as illegal since a criminal case was pending against him in Kerala.
This is the first time that a CVC has been removed from office. This is also the first time in the last 60 years that an appointment made by the Prime Minister has been declared illegal by the Supreme Court.
The post of CVC usually supervises CBI probes and corruption cases against bureaucrats.
The Prime Minister also said there was no 'coalition compulsion' in the issue – a phrase he had used to defend his position on the case of disgraced former Telecom Minister A Raja who is in jail in connection with the multi-crore 2G spectrum scam.
The Prime minister also said on Friday it is “necessary to ensure such things don't happen again.”
While quashing the appointment, a Bench of Chief Justice S H Kapadia and Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Swatantar Kumar was extremely critical of the Prime Minister's panel that had appointed Thomas to the post overruling strong opposition from its only BJP member Sushma Swaraj.
The Bench had also ignored a desperate plea from Thomas himself that he was a man of 'impeccable integrity'.
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