Supreme Court notice to govt on petition against CAG selection process-OxBig News Network

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre to respond to a PIL challenging the current system of appointing the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) solely by the government even as it said, “We have to trust our institutions.”

A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh issued the notice on a PIL filed by NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation and tagged it with a pending case on the issue.

On behalf of the petitioner NGO, advocate Prashant Bhushan submitted that it involved independence of the CAG as an institution. He alleged that audits by CAG in BJP-ruled states, such as Maharashtra, were being stalled.

The NGO contended that the current system of appointing the CAG was “manifestly arbitrary, detrimental to institutional integrity and violates several basic features of the Constitution”.

Bhushan said if the appointment was controlled by the government, the CAG’s independence will be compromised. However, the Bench said, “We have to trust our institutions also.”

The Bench referred to Article 148 of the Constitution, according to which the CAG has the same level of protection as a SC judge when it comes to removal from office.