Gopal Subramanium
Eminent lawyer Gopal Subramanium on Wednesday opted out of being considered for appointment as a Supreme Court judge after lashing out at the Modi government accusing it of ordering CBI to “scrounge” for “dirt” against him to scuttle his elevation.
Mr Subramanium, who had assisted the Supreme Court in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case in which Amit Shah, a close aide of PM Narender Modi is now an accused, said that he was being “targeted” because of his independence and integrity.
He suggested that his role as amicus curiae, a friend of the court, in the Sohrabuddin case, could have been the reason for government opposing his elevation, although he had no direct evidence.
Mr Subramanium, a former solicitor-general, sent a 9-page letter to the Chief Justice of India R.M. Lodha withdrawing his consent to be appointed as a judge saying that he did not want his elevation to be “the subject matter of any politicisation”. His name had been recommended by SC collegium along with three others, Chief Justices of Calcutta and Orissa high courts and senior advocate Rohinton Nariman.