Uday Lalit to be elevated as Supreme Court judge

The Supreme Court recommended Uday Lalit's name after senior advocate Gopal Subramaniam withdrew consent for his candidature as the judge of the apex court after the government apposed it.

The Supreme Court collegium has cleared the elevation of senior advocate Uday Lalit as a Supreme Court judge, according to a NDTV report.

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The apex court recommended Lalit's name after senior advocate Gopal Subramaniam withdrew consent for his candidature as the judge of the Supreme Court after the government opposed it. SC has also cleared elevation of three chief justices of high courts, including one woman judge.

Lalit had given his consent for judgeship before the court shut for summer vacations on May 12. However, the collegium had not forwarded his name to the government along with the four other names - chief justices Adarsh Goel and Arun Mishra, senior advocates Rohinton Nariman and Subramanium, SC sources said. The collegium was even keen to elevate another senior counsel LN Rao, now an additional solicitor general, who did not give his consent, they added.

Lalit, a reputed counsel in the SC, joined the bar in 1983 in Bombay. He has been practising in the top court since 1986 and was designated as a senior advocate in May 2004 by the Supreme Court.

Lalit, who is in his mid-50s, has the experience of fighting cases in favour of the government as well as against it. He has appeared for Narendra Modi's close aide Amit Shah, in the fake encounter case of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati. He even appeared for retired army chief and now minister General VK Singh in the age row matter before the SC. He also rendered assistance as a counsel to the committee looking into corruption allegations against then chief justice of Karnataka HC PD Dinakaran.

In April 2011, Lalit was chosen by the SC as a special public prosecutor in the 2G case before the trial court. He also represented cricketer-turned politician Navjot Singh Sidhu in an accident case that resulted in a 'culpable homicide not amounting to murder' FIR against the BJP leader.