Govt lying about CVC, will approach SC: Swaraj

Slamming the government, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj termed as "untruth" its claim that the charges against Central Vigilance Commissioner P J Thomas was not brought before the high-powered selection committee of which she was a member, and said she would approach the Supreme Court in this regard.

"It is not at all true. In fact, it is a misstatement. I personally brought this fact to the notice of the prime minister and home minister in the meeting itself even though they persisted with this appointment," Swaraj said in New Delhi.

The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha told reporters that she had always stayed away from judicial proceedings but "now I have decided to file my affidavit before the Supreme Court."

Swaraj, who had put on record her dissent to the selection of Thomas as CVC by the three-member committee, was reacting to the affidavit filed by Attorney General G E Vahanvati in the Supreme Court on Thursday that the panel was not aware of the charges in the palmolein export case pending against him in Kerala.

The main opposition party had even boycotted the CVC's swearing-in ceremony a few months back as a mark of protest. "The government is speaking one untruth after another untruth. So I have decided to file a detailed affidavit on the issue," Swaraj said.

She asserted that her main objection to Thomas's appointment was that there was a chargesheet against him in a corruption case and sanction was granted by Kerala government for his prosecution.

Centre for Public Interest Litigation, a non-government organisation, and others had challenged Thomas's appointment as the CVC, citing the pamolein import corruption case in which the top ranking official is an accused.