Environment Ministry fires its lawyer who took on SC

The Ministry of Environment and Forests has sacked one of its key lawyers who took an adversarial stance against the Supreme Court.

The Ministry of Environment and Forests has sacked one of its key lawyers who took an adversarial stance against the Supreme Court. Additional Solicitor General Vikas Singh, who arguing for the Environment Ministry, questioned the SC’s jurisdiction to pass orders in the contentious Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) case, will no longer argue for the Ministry.

He’s been with the Ministry barely for six months. Ironically, in January, his predecessor A D N Rao was stripped of his responsibilities when he was found to be too soft in the course of several hearings in the FAC case.

Singh had a lengthy war of words as he took on a three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal. Battlelines are drawn over the appointment of the three “non-official” members of the seven-member FAC. The Ministry disagreed with the nine “experts” suggested by the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) — set up the apex court in 1996 — and amicus curiae Harish Salve.

In one of the hearings, Singh said there was a separation of powers between the judiciary and the executive. At this, the bench warned him not to speak. “Don’t utter words that we are not respecting other institutions,” it said. Singh retorted: “Your lordship cannot gag me. You are not permitting me to say what I am wanting (to say).”

The bench cut him short.