After Alok Verma had to face the ire of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi as his response to CVC was leaked and published by The Wire, he has a new problem. Today his junior counsel Gopal Shankarnarayanan decided to withdraw from the case.
“I want to make it clear that I withdrew from the case on Monday evening itself and wasn’t there for Tuesday’s hearing. I remain on cordial terms with Mr Verma and it is only the professional engagement that has ceased,” Shankarnarayanan said.
Shankarnarayanan held the communication gap between the office of Senior Counsel Fali S Nariman and himself responsible for his withdrawal from the case. Only Senior Advocate Nariman represented Verma during Tuesday’s hearing when a bench headed by CJI Ranjan Gogoi expressed disappointment at purported leaks spoiling its efforts to maintain confidentiality in the case. Nariman had asked the Supreme Court to summon The Wire’s Editor to get answers regarding the leaks in their media article.
Nariman had questioned the November 19 mentioning by Shankaranarayanan seeking more time to file Verma’s response, calling it “unauthorised”. Though the court refused to adjourn the hearing scheduled for Tuesday, it gave a few hours more after the 1 pm deadline. But Verma’s response was filed at 1.30 pm.
Nariman on Tuesday had cited the tradition that once a senior advocate was in charge of a case, nothing happened without his knowledge. Shankaranarayanan gave the same reason to withdraw from the case as he claimed that filing of the response at 1.30 pm was not informed to him.
Leftist propaganda website The Wire had published Verma’s response to CVC’s questions on its website which had infuriated CJI Ranjan Gogoi.