Senior Advocate Indira Jaisingh has kicked up a storm by tweeting that the first Judge of the Supreme Court to retire in 2019, Justice AK Sikri, must pledge that he will not accept any largesse from the Centre, just after his retirement.
Speaking on the imminent retirement of Justice AK Sikri, on March 7, Indira Jaisingh tweeted, “Justice Sikri must now make a statement that he will not accept any post-retirement Benefits from the Government after having sat in a committee with the PM and agreed with him on transfer of CBI Director #PMOvsCBI #JusticeAKSikri @bainjal @INCIndia @divyaspandana”.
This follows what NewsCentral24x7 has learnt from authoritative sources in government, that on his retirement on March 3, the government is anxious that Justice AK Sikri accept one of the following: a choice between the Chairmanship of the Law Commission, head of NCLAT, a position at the Singapore International Arbitration Centre, or even the post of Lokpal.
A new report, however, confirms that the Narendra Modi government decided last month to nominate Sikri to the vacant position of president/member in the London-based Commonwealth Secretariat Arbitral Tribunal (CSAT).
Maneesh Chhibber reported for The Print that Justice Sikri, second in seniority after Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, will join the CSAT after his retirement as Supreme Court judge on 6 March. Members of CSAT serve a four-year term, which may be renewed for one more run.
According to The Print, sources in the Supreme Court informed them that Union Minister for Law and Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad wrote to CJI Ranjan Gogoi in December 2018, informing him of the External Affairs Ministry’s decision to nominate Justice Sikri for the post, adding that the decision to appoint him was taken “at the highest levels”.
CJI Gogoi reportedly sent the government an affirmative reply after checking with Justice Sikri, and the source further told The Print that “the government was clear that it had him (Sikri) in mind when it wrote to the CJI. Maybe, somebody in the government had already taken his consent.”
Sikri was the Chief Justice’s nominee on the High Power Selection Committee which took the call to “transfer” CBI Chief Alok Kumar Verma for the second time in ten weeks this week. Justice Sikri happened to vote the same way as the PM Narendra Modi who heads the panel. Mallikarjun Kharge, the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, was the only dissenter.
The call for not accepting any post after retirement follows from pledges last year by two senior Judges, since retired, that they will not accept any post from the government after retiring.
Justice J Chelameswar said, in an interaction with journalist Karan Thapar at the Harvard Club of India that he would not be accepting any government post. He has not and since retired to his village after June last year, in Andhra Pradesh.
Justice Kurian Joseph, who retired in November also declared that he would not be accepting any post-retirement post and has since retired to a rented apartment in New Delhi.
It was after Chief Justice of India, P Sathasaivim who immediately on retirement accepted a Governorship in Kerala, that eyebrows were raised on the propriety of Judges, with the government as the biggest litigant, accepting government jobs. In addition, Justice Sathasaivim was the Judge who eventually presided over the matter to discharge BJP Chief Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin-Kausar bi -Tulsiram fake encounter case, so his acceptance of the post generated considerable disquiet.
Last year, Justice AK Goel, within two days of retiring, took charge as the Chief of the National Green Tribunal. Justice RK Agrawal was appointed as the chairman of the National Consumer Redressal Commission (NCDRC) during the last week of May, within weeks of his retirement from Supreme Court.
Today is exactly one year since four senior Judges held a press conference to express their unease over how the Supreme Court was being run. The relationship with the Executive too was a major cause of discomfort, with the unprecedented Judges press conference underlining it as a main worry, under Chief Justice Dipak Misra, who went onto face an impeachment petition, which the Rajya Sabha vice-Chairman scuttled on receipt.
One of the Judges holding the Press Conference, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, is the Chief Justice and in the hot-seat. Serious questions remain on both, the functioning of the Courts, its ability to fight corruption, be truly independent and assert its independence vis a vis the Executive.