Gopal Subramanium slams Modi govt

NEW DELHI: Eminent lawyer Gopal Subramanium on Wednesday opted out of being considered for appointment as 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.

Subramanium, who had assisted the Supreme Court in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case in which Amit Shah, a close aide of Prime Minister 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.

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

politicization".

His name had been recommended for appointment to the Supreme Court bench by its collegium along with three others, Chief Justices of Calcutta and Odisha high courts Arun Mishra and Adarsh Kumar Goyal respectively and senior advocate Rohinton Nariman. Recent reports have suggested the NDA government's reluctance to Subramanium's appointment while it is said to have cleared the other three names. The CBI and the intelligence bureau (IB) are said to have given adverse reports against him.

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