New Delhi, Sep 7 (IANS) President Pratibha Patil Tuesday appointed P.J. Thomas as the new Chief Vigilance Commissioner, officials said here.

Patil administered the oath of office to the 1973 batch Indian Administrative Service officer of Kerala cadre, who was earlier telecom secretary.

'At a ceremony held today at Rashtrapati Bhavan, P.J. Thomas was sworn in as the CVC,' said a Rashtrapati Bhavan statement here.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had raised objections about Thomas' appointment saying that he was probed on charges of corruption in the Kerala palm oil import scam and was thus not fit to oversee investigations into the 2G allocation scan. However, Home Minister P. Chidambaram said that the bureaucrat had been cleared of all charges.

Thomas succeeded Pratyush Sinha, a 1969 batch IAS officer of Bihar cadre, who demitted office Monday after a four-year tenure as the CVC.