Justice Sikri told PM, Kharge he didn't want to be in panel: Sources
January 15, 2019 07:55
After a political controversy that drove Justice AK Sikri to turn down a post-retirement job offer, NDTV citing sources said that the Supreme Court judge did not want to be part of the three-member selection committee that decided to remove Alok Verma as CBI chief.
Justice Sikri, sources say, had conveyed his reluctance to the two other members of the high-powered panel, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, the opposition's representative.
He reportedly told them it was a "pure executive function". Opposition leaders have questioned why he agreed to be on the panel despite the possibility of conflict of interest.
"In future, no judge would like to be part of this process of appointment. All judges will recuse themselves from this process," said sources close to Justice Sikri, whose vote was the decider in the sacking of Alok Verma from the CBI just two days after he was partially reinstated by the Supreme Court.
"See, I don't want the controversy to be dragged. I want it to die," Justice Sikri told news agency PTI.
Justice Sikri, 65, has now turned down the post of president/member of the London-based Commonwealth Secretariat Arbitral Tribunal, the arbiter of disputes among 53 countries in the Commonwealth. He was to take up the job after his retirement on March 6. Sources say Justice Sikri told the centre he had decided to withdraw his candidature to the London job as "he was pained". He had already made it clear, say the sources, that this was not a post with remuneration.
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