HC to hear PIL against Sudhir Mankad's appointment to RBI

The Gujarat High Court today said it will hear a PIL challenging the appointment of former Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) chairman Sudhir Mankad to the Reserve Bank together with an earlier PIL.
The present petition, challenging Mankad's appointment as a non-officiating director of RBI, has been filed by RTI activist Roshan Shah. A division bench of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice V M Pancholi said it would be clubbed with an earlier PIL concerning Mankad.
The PIL, filed through Shah's lawyer K R Koshti, challenges the decision of the Appointment Committee of the Union Cabinet to appoint Mankad to the RBI Board because "the credentials of Mankad are sub-judice in a PIL pending before the honourable court (HC)."

D C Anjaria, a former independent director of GIFT city, had filed a PIL earlier this year alleging irregularity in awarding of contracts in GIFT City project. It seeks a special investigation team to probe it.
The committee, which approved Mankad's appointment to RBI, included the Prime Minister.
"Such appointment shakes public confidence in RBI," Shah's PIL says.
Mankad, who retired as Chief Secretary of Gujarat in April 2007, served on the Board of various companies before being appointed the chairman of GIFT City.
He is now one of the eight non-official directors of RBI.