Supreme Court justices TS Thakur and Anil R Dave asked Gopal Subramanium to reconsider his recusal as the amicus curiae in the Padmanabhaswamy temple treasure case, because he had already put significant work into the case, reported The Hindu.

Subramanium had announced, as reported on 5 August, that he would withdraw from the case.

In June Subramanium had bowed out of the Supreme Court judgeship nomination process after pressure from the government, vowing that out of a sense of propriety, he therefore wouldn’t practice in the Supreme Court until the current Chief Justice of India (CJI) RM Lodha retired. In July he also rejected the Supreme Court’s plea to act as the special public prosecutor in the coal scam cases.

His report in the temple case was harshly critical of the temple’s administrators and the royal family, having found a web of trusts, bank accounts, and a lot of silver, gold and a gold plating machine during his lengthy investigation of the temple. Senior advocate Harish Salve is appearing for the royal family, with KK Venugopal appearing for the trustees, who both criticised Subramanium’s report.