New Delhi: Chief Justice of India R.M. Lodha on Tuesday criticised the government’s decision to drop the name of former solicitor-general Gopal Subramanium from the panel of four names recommended by the collegium headed by him for appointment as Supreme Court judges.

“I fail to understand how the appointment to a high constitutional post has been dealt with in a casual manner. The segregation of Gopal Subramanium’s file was done unilaterally, without my knowledge and concurrence, which was not proper,” he said.

The SC collegium headed by the Chief Justice of India had recommended the names of four eminent persons as judges, but while the government cleared the names of the chief justices of the Calcutta and Orissa high courts, Arun Mishra and Adarsh Kumar Goyal, as well as lawyer Rohinton Nariman, it left out Mr Subramanium. Justice Lodha, who was travelling abroad when the segregation of Mr Subramanium’s name from the others took place, voiced his objection over the executive’s unilateral action.