Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan has said he had written to the Prime Minister on May 20, asking him to make public the names of persons shortlisted for appointment as the Central Vigilance Commissioner.

In a statement on Tuesday, Mr. Bhushan said he had further stressed that the former chief of the Central Board of Direct Taxes, K.V. Choudhry, was “unsuitable” for the post. He had also listed “specific reasons” for this.

The statement follows reports that the Prime Minister, the Home Minister and Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha met on Monday and recommended Mr. Choudhry for the post.

He said one of the reasons he had mentioned in the letter was that “Mr. Choudhry’s name figures four times on the list of persons who visited the former CBI Director, Ranjit Sinha, at his official residence.”

Incidentally, the Supreme Court has sought the assistance of the Central Vigilance Commission, the country’s top anti-corruption watchdog, to determine a methodology for conducting an independent inquiry into whether Mr. Sinha’s meetings with prominent accused persons in the coal scam affected the CBI probe.

The Commission has to report back to the court on July 6.

In its May 14 order, the court found Mr. Sinha’s meetings “completely inappropriate.”

Mr. Bhushan said his letter was written after he came to know that Mr. Choudhry was a frontrunner for the high-integrity office.

‘His name figures four times on the list of persons who visited former CBI Director Ranjit Sinha at his residence’