This blogger is thoroughly unqualified and doesn’t have the stature to dabble in issues so exalted such as involving the Supreme Court of India and the Office of the Chief Vigilance Commissioner, yet as an INDIAN who has been granted the liberty by the Constitution of India, is emboldened to state his views.

We had embarked on the path that if the parts are GENUINE the final product HAS to be GENUINE. A thought which i think holds good in Mechanical goods, but in the conflict between INDIVIDUALS and the INSTITUTION the same may not hold good. The reason being that the individuals are ORGANIC and a genuine individual, by himself not changing his priorities  may catalyze or be susceptible to allow the other more powerful parts into UNWHOLESOME practices.  This is why INSTITUTIONAL INTEGRITY is a must.

The credit for this coinage should go to Kjell Engelbrekt an Associate Professor in the STOCKHOLM UNIVERSITY. His article titled ”The Impact of Enlargement on Institutional Integrity in Central and Eastern Europe”, in Perspectives on European Politics and Society, in 2009.

This construction of INSTITUTIONAL INTEGRITY has been used by their Lordships to show how a person’s PERSONAL INTEGRITY alone cannot be the determining factor when he is made to HEAD an INSTITUTION. He should have the MORAL AUTHORITY to withstand the pressures of the systems falling within his INSTITUTION. This would have been a big challenge, as there are so many charged officers in the Government of India who are languishing without promotions and opportunities as the RULE prohibits such charged officers from becoming eligible for higher posts. When such is the case, how could an Officer who had been himself charged, head an INSTITUTION which is NODAL in determining the HONESTY QUOTIENT in the civil services.

This  blogger believes personally that Mr. P.J. THOMAS would not PERSONALLY indulge in anything bordering DISHONEST practices. I remember in 1980, when Mr.P J Thomas  was on a visit to the shrine in Velankanni in Tamil Nadu, despite his batch mate being the District Collector of Trichy would not even stay in the PWD guest house paying a nominal rent ( even though he was eligible for that facility) instead would either stay with his friends or rent a hotel room paying a modest rent. That was his HONESTY QUOTIENT.

This must have weighed heavily in the minds of their LORDSHIPS and distinguished the tricky issue by invoking INSTITUTIONAL INTEGRITY aptly and leaving the PERSONAL INTEGRITY issues for the trial courts to decide.

That Mr P J Thomas had the PERSONAL INTEGRITY made him withstand the pressure mounted by the MEDIA for his resignation. Unless a man has  personal integrity, he would not have had the guts to withstand such pressure mounted by the media in the name of the Central Government. Thankfully we have a LANDMARK judgment which has used the construction INSTITUTIONAL INTEGRITY to bring another aspect to our vibrant DEMOCRACY. Had Mr P J Thomas meekly resigned we would not have had a judgment which has added a sparkling facet  to PRINCIPLED DECISION MAKING by the SUPREME COURT of India. The Chief Justice and his puisne justices have to be applauded for this great judgment.