What’s up?
Gopal Subramanium, who was a judge-in-waiting for Supreme Court, has withdrawn his candidature amid a controversy.
What went wrong?
Gopal Subramanium, former solicitor general in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, was recommended by the collegium for elevation to the Supreme court bench along with three other names in May. But the Bharatiya Janata Party -led National Democratic Alliance government has rejected his name while accepting the recommendation of others.
Feeling let down by the government and the Supreme Court which did not defend his case, Subramanium wrote to Chief Justice of India R. M. Lodha requesting him to withdraw the recommendation for his elevation.
What are the reasons for the rejection?
The Centre has not spelt out any reasons as yet. But rumours have it that the decision to reject his name was taken based on a report by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that questioned Gopal Subramanium’s role in arranging a meeting with the lawyer of the 2G accused while being the lawyer for CBI.
Subramanium was also assisting the Supreme Court as amicus curaie (one who helps with a case) in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case in which BJP leader Amit Shah came under scrutiny.
Who is Gopal Subramanium?
Gopal Subramanium has been part of big cases. He has been a prosecutor in cases including the Graham Staines murder, the Jessica Lal murder and the 2001 Parliament attack.
He has also appeared for the Maharashtra government against Ajmal Kasab (a militant who was involved in the 26/11 attacks). He was the lead counsel in Italian Marines Case. He was engaged as counsel by Justice Verma, while probing Rajiv Gandhi’s death and in 2013, he was called for assistance in drafting the new anti-rape law.
How is a Supreme Court judge appointed?
Collegium, a group of judges including Chief Justice of India and four senior associate judges of the court, recommends names to the President for appointment to the Supreme Court bench.
What’s the controversy surrounding the rejection by the Centre?
It is argued that the government should not have singled out the name of Subramanium for rejection. According to former Chief Justice of India M.N. Venkatachaliah, the government should have first shared its reasons for deciding to reject him with the court collegium and only with its consent should it have returned the file.
And the entire file with objections regarding the particular candidate has to be sent back to the collegium for re-consideration.
But if the collegium feels that he has to be appointed as judge, the government is bound to obey.
