PM asks Solicitor Gen to withhold resignation

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stepped into the Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium's resignation controversy on Sunday, asking him to withhold his resignation for sometime, sources said.

In a major embarrassment to the UPA II, the government's second-highest law officer Solicitor General of India Gopal Subramanium had offered to resign. Subramanium, sources say, put in his papers, but Law Minister Veerappa Moily did not accept it.

Subramanium offered to resign saying in the past the dignity of the Solicitor General's office had been undermined and it needed to be protected.

However, the immediate provocation to push him to resign, sources told CNN-IBN, was that Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal insisted on having private lawyer Rohington Nariman represent the government on Monday in court on allegations that Sibal favoured Reliance Communication. A miffed Subramanium reportedly felt there was no role for him as the government's legal officer.

In recent times, the perception that Subramanium has not been able to effectively defend the Centre in important cases has also embarrassed the government.

Subramanium was in charge of the government's 2G scam firefighting when the Supreme Court issued a notice to the Prime Ministers Office in the scam. He had also convened a meeting of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials where embarrassingly even the counsel for A Raja was present.

Sources also said that last week, the Supreme Court slammed the Centre's efforts to retrieve black money by ordering a Special Investigation Team (SIT) be formed.