A controversy broke out 𓄧Sunday over Supreme Court judge Justice AK Sikri getting a government offer l𝔍ast year for a post-retirement assignment at the London-based Commonwealth Secretariat Arbitral Tribunal, just three days after his vote helped decide the removal of Alok Verma from the post of CBI director .
Apparently stung by the controversy, sources said Sikri, the second senior-most judge in the ape🐈x 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 March 6.
The government is understood to have recommended Justice Sikri's name for the Commonwealth Secretariat Arbi🃏tral Trꦐibunal (CSAT) late last year.
S൲ikri'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Sources told PTI that the consent was withdrawn Sunday evening when the judge wrote to the Law Ministry, seeking withdrawa♓l of his consent.
The insinuation linking the CSAT assignment with Justice Sikri's participation in the three-membe💝r high-powered committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which decided on the ouster of Alok Verma as CBI director, was wrong, they said.
"Since this consent was taken in the first week of December 2018, it has no connection with the CBI matter for which he became the CJI's nominee only in January, 2019," the souꦚrces added.
Th🐟ey said "a totally unjust controversy" has been raised by connecting the 🔯two.
"True facts are that sometime in the first week of December 2018, Justice Sikri's consent was taken orally for a vaca💝ncy in Commonwealth Secretariat Arbitral Tribunal (CSAT).
"CSAT is meant to decide service disputes between the employees of the Commonwealth Secretar🎐iat and the Commonwealth Secretariat itself,&q💛uot; sources close to Sikri said.
Justice Sikri was part of the three-member panel along with the prime minister and senior Congress leader Mallikajurn Kharge which on Thursday decided on removal of♏ Verma from the post of CBI Director.
Sikri's vote proved crucial to remove Verma from his post as Kharge opposed the move❀ strongly while the government pushed for Ver෴ma's removal.
On the CSAT issue, the sources said, "It is not an assignment on regular basis. There is no monthly remuneration. There may be two to three hearings in a year. There was no question of staying in London or at any other 🐟place."
The government haꦇs not got back to him on theಌ CSAT assignment, they said.
"The government had approached him for the part-time assignment last month. He gave his consent. The job required attending two to three hearing per year and came without emol🃏uments," the sources said.
Sikri wrote a letter to the competent authority in the government, withdඣrawing his consent.
&quo💦t;He (Justice Sikri) has withꦿdrawn 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 th🤡at is why he wants to keep himself away from the controvღersy."
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 t꧅o CSAT.
"The Government has a lot of explaining to do (sic)," Patel said in a tweet taggꦯing a media report.
Citing the media report, Congress president Rahul Gandhi said in a tweet that "when 📖the scales of justice are tampered with, anarchy reigns".
"This PM will stop at nothing, stoop to anything & des🦹troy everything, to cover up the #RafaleScam. He's driven by fear. It's this fear that is making him corrupt & destroy key institutions," he added.
Official sources said nomination of Sikri was made last month following an internal𒐪 process carried out by the Law Ministry.
The External Affairs Ministry communicate💖d to the CSAT about India's nominatio♏n, the sources said.
There was no re൩action from either the Ministry of External Affairs or the Minജistry of Law and Justice on it.
The Commonwealth Secretariat, established in 1965, plays the ro🌜le of an arbiter in case of disputes among its 53 member-✅countries.
The CSAT has a total of eight members, including its presi🧸dent. The members are picked up on the basis of regional representations. A CSAT member has a tenure of four years.
PTI
