CHENNAI: A GO dated August 2 this year ‘appointing’ V K Jeyakodi as vigilance commissioner is illegal, an additional affidavit filed by DMK propaganda secretary and Rajya Sabha member R S Bharathi, challenging the appointment, has alleged.
The GO, issued by the Public (Spl.A) department, is illegal as the Governor had not accorded his approval and affixed his signature. It cannot be made by the Chief Secretary in exercise of powers conferred by Business Rules, in the name of the Governor, petitioner’s senior counsel P Wilson contended.
Also, the act of the Chief Secretary in not appointing Jeyakodi to the post, but simply ‘transferring and posting’ him is contrary to an earlier GO of November 1965 as well as the ratio laid down by the Supreme Court in two similar cases. The file relating to the appointment was also not placed before the Council of Ministers for their approval. All this vitiated the process of appointment and it lacked transparency.
The GO in treating the appointment as transfer and posting is contrary to the doctrine of fixed tenure for integrity institutions. Therefore, it is just and necessary that the court considers the contentions as part of the main writ petition, which sought to quash the GO, to do complete justice. No effective adjudication can be done without the additional grounds raised now, counsel added.
The first bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar, before which the main petition was pending, posted the matter for September 1 when Advocate-General R Muthukumaraswamy is expected to argue the matter.