JOIN USSolicitor General Subramanium meets President
“I tendered my resignation largely because of the appointment of a special counsel (private lawyer) to represent Union of India in the 2G matter. I think without my consent it was not correct and it was an unfair decision,” Subramanium told journalists here on Sunday.
He was quoted by news channels as saying that he had quit as SG to “protect the dignity of office” since the government had not taken him into confidence while appointing a special counsel which, he said, was “unfair.”
The government’s second most important lawyer, who tendered his resignation on Saturday, called on President Pratibha Patil on Sunday.
Besides Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is also understood to have requested the solicitor general not to press his resignation.
Asked whether he would stick to the decision to quit the office of the solicitor general, Subramanium said he would not comment on it now.
He said only after he came to know that a private lawyer has been engaged did he offer to resign.
Subramanium is understood to have protested to Moily the move to take back the file relating to the case from him and handing it over to a private lawyer junior to him.
No role
Private lawyer Rohington Nariman on Monday last represented Sibal in a case relating to charges that he favoured Reliance Communication. A miffed Subramanium felt there was no role for him as the government’s legal officer.
Informed sources said a string of setbacks that the government suffered especially in 2G cases also resulted in the resignation of the SG.
Subramanium has been representing the Centre in the 2G case which has so far caused considerable embarrassment to the Centre with two DMK ministers having been forced to resign and one of them, A Raja, finding hiself in jail.
An NGO called the Centre for Public Interest Litigation has filed an additional affidavit in the case charging Sibal of unduly favouring Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communication by reducing the proposed penalty on the company from huge Rs 650 crore to just Rs 5 crore.
Subramanium has so far appeared for the Centre in many important cases. He represented the Centre in the black money case in which the apex court directed for the appointment of a SIT under the supervision of two eminent retired Supreme Court judges.
The SG has also received flak for failing to convince the apex court which had asked the prime minister to file an affidavit in the case for “inaction” in preventing then Telecom Minister Raja in his controversial manner of 2G spectrum allocation.