If the office of Solicitor-General of India becomes so jinxed that persons holding it feel impelled to resign when they have barely got into their stride, then we cannot but infer that there is something the matter with the pattern of interaction that the government has established with the top-flight lawyers who take up that post.
Rohinton Nariman put in his papers on Monday after only a year and a half in office. His predecessor Gopal Subramanium had lasted about two years. In the case of both lawyers, the complaint appeared to be that the government is imperious.
Union law ministers sometimes take decisions without keeping the solicitor-general posted even in respect of matters relating to the latter’s jurisdiction. This was, for instance, the case when, behind the back of
Mr Subramanium, the then law minister just went ahead and appointed another lawyer (it happened to be Mr Nariman) to represent communications minister Kapil Sibal in the 2G spectrum allocation case without keeping the S-G in the loop. In the present instance, Mr Nariman reportedly took offence at being assigned, without his prior knowledge, and at the last minute, to appear before a certain tribunal.
In both instances the actions of the law and justice minister were undignified, especially when we consider that S-Gs are top-end, well-regarded, professionals who lend the weight of their name to the government. The situation possibly gets even worse when the law minister is a lawyer himself. S-Gs then resent being treated shabbily by a brother lawyer.