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.
“The government had approached him for the assignment last month. He gave his consent. The job required attending two to three hearings in a year and came without any remuneration,” sources close to the judge said.
Questions were raised on such an offer lined up for the judge who voted with PM Modi to remove Alok Verma. Mallikarjun Kharge was the dissenting member on the panel, who argued that the Central Vigilance Commission’s report made it clear the main corruption allegations against Mr Verma were unsubstantiated.
Justice Sikri was the nominee of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, who had recused himself as he was part of the Supreme Court bench that passed an order on Mr Verma.
Congress chief Rahul Gandhi tweeted an article by news website The Print on Justice Sikri being offered the post-retirement job.
Rahul Gandhi alleges that PM Modi was desperate to throw Mr Verma out and didn’t want him in CBI for “even 15 minutes” as he would have ordered an investigation into the Rafale jet deal.
The Commonwealth Secretariat Arbitral Tribunal was established and operates under a Statute agreed by Commonwealth governments in 1995.
It was formed to meet the requirements of the Agreed Memorandum on the Commonwealth Secretariat (1964) which was revised by governments in 2005.
The CSAT has a full complement of eight members comprising the President and seven other members.
The members are selected by commonwealth governments on a regionally representative basis from among persons of high moral character who must hold or have held high judicial office in a Commonwealth country. The members are appointed on a four-year term which may be renewed only once.
