Mr Sudhir and Ms Saha, whose appointments have also been contested by the petitioners, had assumed office prior to the orders. Mr Soni and Mr Bedi had challenged the appointments as out of turn promotions, saying that their seniority had been overlooked in the process.Government sources, however, told FE that the CBEC membership was not a ?cadre post? with seniority as the sole criterion. ?The appointment is through a selection process. Weightage is given to the candidates? impeccable integrity and many other factors,? they said.

The government had reason to be suspicious of the honesty of the two offices, based on reports of the Central Vigilance Commission and the Intelligence Bureau. The government has already filed petition with the CT, urging that the two cases be clubbed. As per the service rules, an IRS officer can be considered for the post of the CBEC member only if he had at least one year of service left. Both Mr Bedi- who is chief commissioner in Chandigarh and Mr Soni (now chief department representative in Delhi) - meet this criterion, besides being the senior most.