"...Was I aware of the charge-sheet against Shri Thomas, the honest answer is that the notes which were prepared by the department and these notes are prepared under the guidance of the minister of state in charge of the DoPT (department of personnel and training), that note did not contain this information," Manmohan Singh said in the Rajya Sabha, after making a statement on the issue.

Reiterating that "there was a error of judgement", the prime minister said he took "full responsibility" and was "accountable" for the decision.

Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) member Sitaram Yechury argued that whoever was responsible for the clearance of Thomas's name should be made accountable.

"As in charge of department of personnel and training (DoPT), I accept responsibility and I am accountable," the prime minister said.

"I did became aware of this case only when the honourable leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha (Sushma Swaraj) raised this issue in the meeting itself and this is where I find that since Thomas had been appointed chief secretary of the government of Kerala, secretary of the government of India, all legitimate vigilance handles must have been completed and that's why we went ahead with the selection process," he said.

"As far as the responsibility for the preparation of that came, it came through normal channels and it came with the approval of the minister of state, department of personal and training... I was not aware of any irregularity and that too of corruption," he added.

Pushing for making accountable whoever was responsible for pushing Thomas' name, Jaitley said: "The independence and integrity of CVC is of utmost importance. The only intention is that this institution of CVC is strengthened so that this kind of errors are not repeated."

"A person with a charge-sheet pending against him was preferred over persons with no stigma attached," he noted.

Yechury said there were differences in the prime minister's statement in Lok Sabha Monday and in the Rajya Sabha Tuesday.

"The PM said 'There has been an error of judgement and I accept responsibility'. The attorney general said this happened because the department of personnel failed to put up required papers. Something is wrong in the system," he added.

"Somewhere something went wrong. PM should come out clean on the issue. One must appreciate PM for what he said," Yechury said

The CPI-M leader also wanted to know why an objection from the leader of opposition in Lok Sabha was overlooked.

Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D. Raja questioned if there was "some compulsion for the prime minister (to accept the name of Thomas)".

"Was the prime minister under some compulsion, who led the prime minister to such a decision. How did the government propose such a person to be CVC? How were they forced to take such decision," he asked.

Earlier, the prime minister, reading out from a written statement, reiterated that "there has been an error of judgement on our part" in the selection of Thomas, whose appointment was last week stuck down by the Supreme Court.

Appointed in September 2010 as the CVC by a majority decision of a three-member selection panel, Thomas, a Kerala-cadre Indian Administrative Service officer, had been charge-sheeted in a corruption case in the import of palm oil in the 1990s when he was serving in Kerala.

The court said the appointment made by a high-powered committee, consisting of prime minister, Home Minister P. Chidambaram and leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha does not exist in law. Sushma Swaraj had recorded her dissent to the appointment.

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