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Sanjiv Kumar Rajendrabhai Bhatt vs. State of Gujarat & Anr. (SLP (Crl.) No. 9445 of 2022)

SLP (Crl.) · 2023 INSC 515Decided 10 May 2023
SLP (Crl.) No. 9445 of 2022
M.R. Shah · C.T. Ravikumar

Background

The petitioner (a former IPS officer) circulated a letter asking one of the two judges hearing his special leave petition to recuse himself, on the ground that the same judge, while sitting on the Gujarat High Court in 2011, had made critical remarks about the petitioner's conduct and delaying tactics in an earlier matter arising from the same FIR. The State and the original complainant opposed the recusal request, calling it an attempt at "forum shopping" and "bench hunting."

Decision Breakdown

The Court noted that the petitioner had earlier approached the same judge (as part of a bench) in a related special leave petition arising out of the very same FIR without raising any objection, and that the present matter itself had been listed and adjourned multiple times over several months after the letter seeking recusal was written, without the letter being pressed. It was raised only when the case was actually about to be heard on merits. On these facts, the Court held the recusal request lacked bona fides and was made with a mala fide intent to avoid the bench, and rejected the prayer for recusal.

Lesson Learnt

A request for a judge to step aside from a case must be made promptly and in good faith; raising an old, previously-unused ground for recusal only at the point a matter is finally coming up for hearing on merits can itself be treated by the court as an improper attempt to handpick a more favourable bench, and can be rejected on that basis.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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