Four days after Supreme Court judge Justice AK Sikri’s vote helped decide the removal of Alok Verma from the post of CBI director, NDTV reported quoting sources that he did not want to be a part of the three-member selection committee, including PM Narendra Modi and Opposition leader Mallikarjun Kharge.
Justice Sikri had conveyed his hesitation to the other two members of the panel citing that the matter was a “pure executive function”, according to the source quoted by NDTV.
Sikri's vote proved crucial to remove Verma from his post as Kharge opposed the move strongly while the government pushed for Verma's removal.
The CSAT Controversy and a Refusal
A controversy had erupted on Sunday, 13 January, over Justice AK Sikri getting a government offer last year for a post-retirement assignment at the London-based Commonwealth Secretariat Arbitral Tribunal.
Apparently stung by the controversy, sources said Sikri, the second senior-most judge in the apex court after Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, withdrew his consent to the government offer to nominate him for president/member of the CSAT. Sikri is due to retire on 6 March.
The government is understood to have recommended Justice Sikri's name for the Commonwealth Secretariat Arbitral Tribunal (CSAT) late last year.
Sikri's consent was "taken orally for a vacancy" in the Commonwealth tribunal, sources said.
Sources told PTI that the consent was withdrawn Sunday evening when the judge wrote to the Law Ministry, seeking withdrawal of his consent.
"He (Justice Sikri) has withdrawn his consent, he has given no reasons. He just wanted to be away from the controversy," a source close to Sikri said.
The source said, Justice Sikri "is a man of very simple nature" and he felt that there should not be any controversy over his appointment, and that is why he wants to keep himself away from the controversy." Hitting out at the government, senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel said, the Centre has a "lot of explaining to do" on the nomination of Sikri to CSAT.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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