The story so far: Last week former Supreme Court judge Justice MR Shah refused to recuse himself from hearing a plea by former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Sanjiv Bhatt to submit additional evidence to back his Gujarat High Court appeal against his conviction in a 1990 custodial death case.
Mr. Bhatt contended that there was a reasonable apprehension of bias as Justice Shah, as a High Court judge, passed strictures against him while hearing his plea linked to the same First Information Report (FIR).
However, Justice Shah dismissed the plea as an attempt to indulge in ‘bench hunting’. Notably, Justice Shah’s colleague in the bench, Justice CT Ravikumar, had recused himself a few weeks ago from hearing a batch of appeals against the discharge of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the SNC-Lavalin corruption case, noting that he had dealt with an incidental proceeding in the case as a Kerala High Court judge.
