This Article is From Jul 10, 2011

Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam meets President Pratibha Patil

Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam meets President Pratibha Patil
New Delhi: Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam met President Pratibha Patil today. This comes a day after, in a surprise move, Mr Subramaniam offered to resign.

The top law officer's offer to resign came after the government asked a private lawyer to defend the Telecom Minister in the 2G case in Supreme Court. Sources say this upset the Solicitor General as the government's law officers were not asked to the minister.

Subramaniam is said to have felt slighted by the move, sources said.

Mr Subramaniam is understood to have spoken to Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily to make the offer of resignation but the latter rejected it, sources added.

The Solicitor General had in November last year come under fire from the government after Supreme Court asked it to file an affidavit on alleged "inaction" by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in preventing the then Telecom Minister A Raja from allocating 2G spectrum in a controversial manner.

Subramaniam had sought to be dismissive about it but the government has subsequently asked Attorney General G E Vahanvati to represent the Prime Minister in the apex Court in place of the Solicitor General.

Subramaniam continued to represent the Department of Telecom (DoT).

The government had also inducted eminent lawyer K K Venugopal to represent CBI along with Additional Solicitor General Haren Raval.

.