Guwahati, Dec. 1: Devajit Saikia, who was relieved from the post of additional advocate-general of Assam on Friday, today said his removal from the post was an offshoot of internal bickering in the ruling Congress.

Though the government did not cite any reason for its decision, sources said it was forced to make the move after Saikia was criticised by a section of the media for appearing before the CBI in Calcutta last week on behalf of News Live, a city-based satellite channel owned by the wife of former Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, in connection with Saradha scam.

Sarma was also questioned by the CBI.

“Relieving me only because I took up a brief of a private company, is nothing but an offshoot of the ongoing internal political bickering of the Congress in Assam today. But a thoroughly professional person like me should not have been made a victim of such political activities,” Saikia told reporters here this morning.

Sarma, who was once the most influential minister in the Tarun Gogoi cabinet, resigned from his post in July in protest against continuance of Gogoi as the CLP leader.

Saikia, who is considered to be close to Sarma, said according to a ruling of Allahabad High Court given in the late fifties, there is no bar for a government advocate to appear in a criminal proceeding on behalf of his private clients in another state.

According to Saikia, some advocate-generals of Arunachal Pradesh and other northeastern states have been regularly appearing in criminal cases on behalf of accused persons in the principal bench of Gauhati High Court in Guwahati.

When a dispute arose on this issue some years ago, the Bar Council of India ruled and clarified that there is no bar or illegality for an advocate-general or additional advocate-general of one state to take up the role of defense counsel in criminal cases of another state, he said.

He said since the Assam government was not a party in any manner in the Saradha scam case, the question of conflict of interest does not arise.

Regarding violation of ethics as alleged by a few lawyers, Saikia said he had not even remotely violated the code of ethics of the Bar Council of India by appearing before the CBI on behalf of the news channel.

But Saikia is disappointed with the way the government removed him from the post of additional advocate-general.

“After successfully defending the government for the last 10 years in numerous cases, I was expecting minimum courtesy while removing me from the post. Even a letter or a phone call or even an SMS would have been enough for me to send the resignation promptly instead of relieving me in a somewhat humiliating manner,” Saikia said.