Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar is new CVC

A government panel on Saturday unanimously chose Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar as India's next Chief Vigilance Commissioner, four months after the Supreme Court quashed appointment of PJ Thomas. New CVC a seasoned bureaucrat

A government panel on Saturday unanimously chose Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar as India's next Chief Vigilance Commissioner, four months after the Supreme Court quashed appointment of PJ Thomas.

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Kumar, a 1972 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Haryana cadre, was chosen by a panel comprising of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Home Minister P Chidambaram and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj.

"The name has been finalised... I have not raised any objection," Swaraj said, after the 20-minute meeting of the panel. Swaraj had dissented selection of PJ Thomas as CVC, whose appointment was subsequently quashed by Supreme Court terming it "non-est" in law.

Thereafter, the government initiated the process to select new CVC as per the court's guidelines of selecting a person of "impeccable integrity".

The Department of Personnel and Training prepared a list of 20 officials. Of them, former Home Secretary G K Pillai and Personnel secretary Alka Sirohi rescued themselves from consideration.

Others whose names were considered included former Chemicals and Fertilisers Secretary Bijoy Chatterjee, former Secretary, Legislative Affairs VK Bhasin and former Urban Development Secretary M Ramachandran.

As a new CVC, Kumar, a seasoned bureaucrat, would be overseeing CBI investigations into high profile scams such as 2G and CWG. His appointment comes at the time when the government is considering ways to strengthen CVC as an effective body to corruption in public sector.