As the country looses a Good Judge, Jurists unite for the Cause

It isn’t common for the Government to segregate the Collegium’s suggestions. Had the Chief Justice chosen to reiterate its nomination of Subramanium, constitutionally, the government would have to comply. But Mr. Gopal Subramanium decided to withdraw, maintaining the integrity and independence which he is admired for, leaving the judicial system and the country to ponder upon the treatment that was meted out to him during the last month. As Justice(Retd) Rajinder Sachar rightly puts it, Government behaving in a small manner, the court has lost a good judge.He seems to have awakened the legal fraternity for his cause. In his interview to CNN IBN, Subramanium beamed with support extended by former Chief Justice of India M.N. Venkatachaliah and former Supreme Court Judge V.R. Krishna Iyer. Venkatachaliah on Wednesday criticized the government for unilaterally segregating the name of former Solicitor-General Gopal Subramanium and approving the names of other three persons recommended by the Supreme Court collegium for appointment as judges.He criticized the Government for not having consulted the collegium before de-linking his name and told The Hindu, “Suppose, if Mr. Subramanium’s name was the first among the four names recommended by the [Supreme Court] collegium, the government is not entitled to clear names 2, 3 and 4 and withhold the first name. The entire file with objections regarding the particular candidate has to be sent back to the collegium for re-consideration. This is what the Memorandum of Procedure between the judiciary and the executive says”. Before his withdrawal, former Supreme Court judge V.R. Krishna Iyer, had expressed his dismay over the Government’s stand against elevation of senior advocate Gopal Subramanium as a Supreme Court judge.Praising Subramanium’s caliber, Iyer stated, “He is a sound lawyer with great integrity and will be a tribute to the Supreme Court Bench if he is installed as the judge of the Supreme Court of India. However to eliminate him from that post will be an indefensible disaster a disappointment which the country need not suffer from at all.”As a retired judge of the Supreme Court he regretted this measure of the Prime Minister and hoped that he will reconsider this wrong step, adding that the country cannot afford to lose a sound and splendid lawyer who will adorn the Supreme Court Bench.Mr. Subramanium definitely deserved better for the service that he has bestowed the nation with. The Supreme Court has been his temple, with his father being one of the Court’s earliest regular practitioners. He has time and again given evidence of his credibility, of his commitment to the profession. He, along with R.F. Naiman, was among the youngest persons to be designated as senior advocates by the Supreme Court. Mr. Subramanium and his teams’ extraordinary efforts formed the basis of the Verma report which led to amendments to the rape law after the Delhi gang rape incident in Delhi in 2012. Subramanium was an Additional Solicitor General from 2005 to 2009 and later Solicitor General up to 2011. He was also chairman of Bar Council of India for 2010-11. He also represented the CBI in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case and was prosecution counsel in the Parliament terror attack case.He worked on Ajmal Kasab’s appeal for a nominal fee of one rupee. Recently, acting as amicus curiae in safeguarding the wealth of the Anantha Padmanabhaswamy temple, Mr. Subramanium went out of his way in cleaning its sacred tank and spending nearly a crore from his own pocket.Senior Supreme Court lawyer, Harish Salve however, blamed the collegium system and said, "I don't blame the judiciary but I blame the system, which allowed to evolve and continue. I have been a critique of this collegium system. It is not serving the Indian judiciary or democracy. I think to say that the executive should not have the last say in the appointment of judges is what we all fought for. But equally to say that the executive should have no say in the selection of judges is something which may be unacceptable,"Although the Constitution of India provides for appointment through three categories of persons, namely high court judges, lawyers and academics, the Supreme Court judges in India are seldom appointed from members of the bar. Usually, a former Chief Justice of a High Court is elevated to the position of a SC judge.The appointment of judges to the Supreme Court and the High Court is provided under Article 124(2) and Article 217(1) of the Constitution of India, 1950. Under these provisions, the President of India is required to “consult” with the Chief Justice of India and in case of High Court appointments, to consult the Governor and the Chief Justice of the respective High Court. The Supreme Court in the case of Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association v. Union of India construed the word “consultation” to be equal to “concurrence”. The Advisory Opinion of the Supreme Court in 1998 laid down the process ...

As the country looses a Good Judge, Jurists unite for the Cause

Apoorva Mandhani

Tags