Senior advocate Indira Jaising on Monday, January 14 commented that the even though Justice AK Sikri has now declined the government’s offer of a position at the Commonwealth Secretariat Arbitral Tribunal (CSAT), it still does not validate the decision of the high-power committee to remove Alok Verma as the CBI Director.
She wrote on Twitter that on the day when “he (Justice Sikri) agreed with the PM (Narendra Modi)” to remove Verma, he had already given his consent to the post-retirement job.
Justice Sikri’s withdrawing his consent does not validate the decision of the Committee made under Section 4B(2)
of the DSPEA ,on the date he agreed with the PM , he had given consent #AlokVermaQuits @pbhushan1 @maneeshchhibber @ShekharGupta @bainjal— Indira Jaising (@IJaising) January 14, 2019
After the widely-criticised and hasty removal of Verma, media reports had revealed that Justice Sikri, who was nominated on the high power committee by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, had been offered the plum position by the Modi government. One report says that last month, the CJI had “replied to the government in the affirmative after checking with Justice Sikri.”
Hence, she writes that now, Justice Sikri “withdrawing his consent does not validate the decision of the Committee..”.
Justice Sikri, who is set to retire on March 6, turned down the government’s offer following the backlash.
Jaising has also demanded that the committee’s decision be recalled as it is ‘vitiated’ due to the said facts.