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New Delhi: Supreme Court judge Justice MR Shah on Monday said that he will not recuse from hearing a plea by former Gujarat-cadre IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt [Sanjivkumar Rajendrabhai Bhatt v State of Gujarat].
Bhatt in his plea has sought permission to produce additional evidence before the Gujarat High Court in his appeal against conviction in a custodial death case.
Bhatt had sought recusal of Justice Shah on the ground that when he was a judge of the Gujarat High Court, he was part of the bench hearing a matter arising from the first information report (FIR) on the basis of which Bhatt was convicted.
A bench comprising Justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar said that the request by Bhatt seeking recusal of Justice Shah has been rejected.
“Merely because 10 years ago an order was passed. Is this a ground?”
The hearing on merits of the case will continue later today.
A Jamnagar Sessions Court in Gujarat had in 2019 convicted the ex-IPS officer in connection with a 1990 custodial death case, and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
The incident took place when Bhatt was serving as Assistant Superintendent of Police, Jamnagar, and had taken over 100 persons into his custody for an incident of rioting in the area. One of them, who was in police custody for nine days, died of renal failure after being released on bail.
Subsequently, a criminal complaint was registered against Bhatt and other officers for the custodial death, and cognisance was taken by a magistrate in 1995.
Bhatt was slapped with Indian Penal Code Sections of murder, causing grievous hurt, criminal Intimidation and abetment.
As a High Court judge, Justice Shah had in 2011 refused to set aside a trial court ruling that had rejected an application for deferment of framing of charges in the case.
“…the petitioner verily apprehending that the ends of justice will not meet if the present Special Leave Petition is being heard by the same judge. In the circumstance it is most humbly prayed that this Hon’ble Court may be pleased to consider recusing him from hearing the Special Leave Petition,” Bhatt stated in his letter to the Supreme Court seeking recusal of Justice Shah.
In January, Senior Advocate Devadatt Kamat, appearing for Bhatt, had told the Supreme Court that the issue was about apprehension of bias, to which the Bench replied saying that a reasonable nexus has to be proved.
Bhatt is a vocal critic of the Narendra Modi government. Prior to his dismissal from service, he had filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court alleging that the Modi-led Gujarat government was complicit in the 2002 Gujarat riots.
He was dismissed from service by the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2015 on grounds of unauthorised absence from service.
Bhatt is also in detention in relation to a 22-year-old drug-planting case.
