Former Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam withdraws his candidature for SC judge post

Former Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam on Wednesday said that he has decoded to withdraw his candidature for the post of a Supreme Court judge and sought for judicial institutions to be kept insulated from scandalisation.

"The first time that I had any idea that the Government was opposed to me was when I read an Economic Times article which was published on June 11. On June 12 I rang up Chief justice, I asked if articles are coming in newspapers , I asked if anyone was feeling embarassed because of me. I told that I was ready to withdraw if anyone had any issues. I began to realise then that the government was not in a position to accept my name. But since I was told to hold to the name, I said alright, but little did I realise that there will be continuous planting of stories on sustained basis baselessly. I then thought that even if I were to become a judge incase the collegium reiterated my recommendation, such a degree of damage in the public mind has already been caused by so many reports.I only wished the government was straightforward. It is the judiciary which determines the suitaibility of the candidate," he said.

"I was somewhat alarmed when I saw that it is the government of the day which is now going to determine the suitability of the candidate. They may have reservations about a candidate and can write back to the chief justice and it can bring material to his attention and it can be done in a manner with known methodology and this was not done till date," he added.

"There appears to be a certain misgivings about me and it's alright I respect criticisms but either it is communicated to be correctly or to the collegium. Ultimately I realised that they were four judges in the list and three were cleared and one were not cleared. I felt that I had a duty to myself because nobody defended me till then, there was no suggestion from anyone to the government to put on hold this kind of nonsensical goings on. And I thought at the end of it, I had to take a call, I do not like these kind of iterations. What is important in this matter is that we cannot have adventures of this kind in the matter of judicial appointments. I felt office of the judge was being compromised and therefore if there is such trust deficit. I respect the reservation but this was not correct," Subramaniam said.

"That's why I decided to withdraw and I hope that it does not recur. I didnot expect that this will happen to me this was unanticipated. Judicial institution must be insulated against scandalisation of this kind. I think executive has as much a role to play in judicial appointments," he added.

It is being learnt reportedly that the government has sent a note to the collegium giving out reasons for its reservations over appointing Subramanium to the apex court.

The government had earlier cleared the names of Calcutta high court Chief Justice Arun Mishra, Orissa high court Chief Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and senior advocate Rohinton Nariman for elevation to the Supreme Court.