Consider the following statements about Central Vigilance Commission (CVC): 1. Central Vigilance Commissioner is appointed by the President of India. 2. The Committee to recommend the appointment of Central Vigilance Commissioner has the Minister of Home Affairs as one of the members. 3. In certain circumstances the Leader of the single largest group in opposition in Lok Sabha can be on the Committee to recommend the appointment of Central Vigilance Commissioner. How many of the above statements is/are correct?

Correct — D, 3. All three statements are drawn straight from section 4 of the Central Vigilance Commission Act, 2003, and each survives checking. Sub-section (1) provides that the Central Vigilance Commissioner and the Vigilance Commissioners are appointed by the President by warrant under his hand and seal, which settles the first statement. Its proviso then requires that no such appointment be made without the recommendation of a Committee of three — the Prime Minister as Chairperson, the Minister of Home Affairs as Member, and the Leader of the Opposition in the House of the People as Member. That gives the second. The third is the one candidates most often doubt, and it is the most interesting, because it is statutory rather than a matter of practice: an Explanation appended to the same sub-section provides that where no Leader of the Opposition has been recognised in the House of the People, the expression includes the Leader of the single largest group in opposition to the Government in that House. The provision has been used. Neither the sixteenth Lok Sabha nor the seventeenth recognised a Leader of the Opposition, because no single opposition party reached the customary one-tenth of the House, so the leader of the largest opposition party took that seat on the Committee instead.

• (a)Nil — Every one of the three statements is supported by the text of section 4 of the CVC Act, 2003. None of them fails.
• (b)1 — Undercounts badly. This would suit a candidate who accepts only the presidential appointment and doubts both limbs about the Committee, but the Committee's membership is spelled out in the proviso to the same sub-section.
• (c)2 — The natural landing place for anyone who accepts the first two statements but treats the third as an informal arrangement. It is not — the substitution of the leader of the single largest opposition group is written into the Act as an Explanation.

The Central Vigilance Commission began in February 1964 as an executive body, created by a Government of India resolution on the recommendation of the K. Santhanam Committee on Prevention of Corruption. It was given statutory footing by the Central Vigilance Commission Act, 2003, which followed the Supreme Court's directions in the Vineet Narain case. The Commission consists of a Central Vigilance Commissioner as chairperson and not more than two Vigilance Commissioners. Each holds office for four years from the date of entering office or until the age of sixty-five, whichever is earlier, and can be removed by the President only on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity, after the Supreme Court has held an inquiry on a reference from the President.

Three-member selection committees recur across India's watchdog institutions and they are not identical, which is where marks are lost. For the Central Vigilance Commissioner the third seat belongs to the Home Minister. For the Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation, under the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, the third seat belongs to the Chief Justice of India or a judge of the Supreme Court nominated by him. In both cases the Prime Minister chairs and the Leader of the Opposition sits. The drafting device in statement 3 is worth recognising on sight, because Parliament uses it repeatedly — the Right to Information Act carries the same substitution for its selection committee. It exists for a practical reason: recognition as Leader of the Opposition is not automatic, and without the substitution a government could effectively appoint alone whenever the opposition was fragmented.

• Section 4(1) of the CVC Act, 2003 provides that the Central Vigilance Commissioner and the Vigilance Commissioners are appointed by the President by warrant under his hand and seal.
• The recommending Committee is the Prime Minister as Chairperson, the Minister of Home Affairs and the Leader of the Opposition in the House of the People.
• An Explanation to that sub-section extends 'Leader of the Opposition' to include the Leader of the single largest group in opposition where none has been recognised.
• The Commission has a Central Vigilance Commissioner and not more than two Vigilance Commissioners; the term is four years or age sixty-five, whichever comes first.
• The CVC is a statutory body, not a constitutional one — it began by executive resolution in 1964 and was placed on a statute only in 2003.

• Treating the CVC as a constitutional body. It is statutory, and only from 2003; the Election Commission is the constitutional one in that family of questions.
• Putting the Chief Justice of India on the CVC selection committee. That seat belongs to the CBI Director's committee, not this one.
• Assuming that with no recognised Leader of the Opposition the seat simply falls vacant. The Act says otherwise.

As a statements-count item like this one, as a direct question on who appoints or who selects, or through the Santhanam Committee and the 1964 origin of the Commission.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Central Vigilance Commission was placed on a statutory footing by an Act of which year?

  • (a)1964
  • (b)1988
  • (c)1997
  • (d)2003

  Answer(d) 2003 — the Central Vigilance Commission Act. The Commission itself dates from a Government resolution of February 1964, and the Supreme Court's Vineet Narain directions came in 1997.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following is a member of the committee that recommends the appointment of the Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation but not of the committee that recommends the appointment of the Central Vigilance Commissioner?

  • (a)The Prime Minister
  • (b)The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha
  • (c)The Chief Justice of India or a Supreme Court judge nominated by him
  • (d)The Minister of Home Affairs

  Answer(c) The Chief Justice of India or a Supreme Court judge nominated by him — the CVC committee has the Home Minister in that third seat instead.