Govt scrambles top officers to protect CAG's appointment

On 13 July, cabinet secretary Ajit Kumar Seth has called special meeting to chart out govt's defence in apex court

In a bid to avoid further embarrassment in the Supreme Court, the union government has decided to throw full weight behind Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s decision to appoint former defence secretary Shashi Kant Sharma as head of the Comptroller Audit General (CAG).  

On 13 July, cabinet secretary Ajit Kumar Seth has a called a special meeting of attorney general Goolam E Vahanvati, defence secretary R K Mathur, secretary legal affairs Brahm Avtar Agrawal, secretary department of economic affairs Arvind Mayaram and secretary department of personnel and training Syamal Kumar Sarkar to chart out government’s defence in the apex court.

Two years ago, the government was cut to size when the apex court had struck down the controversial appointment of P J Thomas as Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), country’s elite anti-corruption watchdog. Sharma was sworn as CAG on 23 May.

 “It is a constitutional post and thus far, it has always been prime minister’s prerogative to appoint CAG,” a high-ranking government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.

“A strategy is being worked out because no one wants repetition of what happened in the past. If something goes wrong, opposition will have reasons to target prime minister, especially when the general elections are assumed round the corner,” the official added.   

Sharma’s selection came under attack after some retired civil servants including former chief election commissioner N. Gopalaswami, former chiefs of Naval Staff Admiral (retd.) R H Tahiliani and Admiral (retd) L Ramdas and former Deputy CAG B P Mathur petitioned before the Supreme Court that former’s appointment was arbitrary and it lacked transparency.

The petitioners pointed that it would be a conflict of interest, if Sharma carries out audit of those defence deals that were cleared when he was either director general (acquisition) or defence secretary in the defence ministry.  

Many of these deals, including purchase of 12 VVIP helicopters from Anglo-Italian company Augsta-Westland, have run into rough weather due to charges of kickbacks and corruption.   

The Supreme Court is likely to hear the matter later this week. The petitioner demanded that government establish a procedure to appoint CAG through a transparent and fair manner.

Hitherto, there has been no precedent where appointment to such coveted position was made through a collegium, like in the case of the CVC, who is selected by the prime minister, leader of opposition and one cabinet minister. The opposition has been demanding that a similar process may be considered for the selection of CAG.