The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved orders on a petition filed by sacked Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who objected to a judge hearing his plea to produce additional evidence in a 1990 custodial death case in which he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
A bench of justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar reserved orders on the application filed by Bhatt seeking recusal of one of the judges, justice Shah. Bhatt argued that the same judge had indicted him for delaying the trial in the same case while he was a judge at the Gujarat high court (prior to his elevation as a Supreme Court judge).
Senior advocate Devadutt Kamat and Aljo Joseph representing Bhatt said, “Judicial propriety demands that the court may not hear the matter. We are not saying that my Lord (justice Shah) is biased but there is a perception in the mind of a person who has been castigated by the judge to have an apprehension of bias.” Kamat produced the copy of those orders passed by justice Shah while presiding in the high court where an opinion was expressed against Bhat that he was delaying the trial.
The application was opposed by the Gujarat government represented by senior advocate Maninder Singh, who said that the recusal was an afterthought and should not be entertained as similar matters arising from the same trial were heard before a bench headed by justice Shah. “You cannot seek recusal on ground of selective bias. It has to be argued at the first instance. Selective prayer for recusal will amount to contempt of court.” The state was supported by the complainant who had lodged the complaint against Bhatt.
{{/usCountry}}The application was opposed by the Gujarat government represented by senior advocate Maninder Singh, who said that the recusal was an afterthought and should not be entertained as similar matters arising from the same trial were heard before a bench headed by justice Shah. “You cannot seek recusal on ground of selective bias. It has to be argued at the first instance. Selective prayer for recusal will amount to contempt of court.” The state was supported by the complainant who had lodged the complaint against Bhatt.
{{/usCountry}}The custody death case against Bhatt dates back to the year 1990 when he was the additional superintendent of police at Jamnagar. Police had detained many Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers protesting against the arrest of party leader LK Advani after his Rath Yatra was stopped in Bihar due to communal violence. One of those detained, Prabhudas Vaishnani, died in a hospital soon after his release. His brother alleged that Vaishnani was tortured by policemen in jail that led to his death.
On June 20, 2019, a sessions court in Jamnagar convicted Bhatt and sentenced him to life imprisonment. He then approached the high court for suspension of the sentence but the same got rejected in September 2019.