Supreme Court judge Justice BR Gavai on Tuesday, 18 May, recused himself from hearing a plea by former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh seeking transfer of all inquiries against him to an independent agency outside Maharashtra.
The matter had come for hearing before a vacation bench of Justices Vineet Saran and BR Gavai, as per PTI.
“Brother (Justice Gavai) has some difficulty in taking up this matter. We will just say place it before another bench.”Justice Vineet Saran
"I can't hear this matter," Justice Gavai said.
The bench further asked for the matter to be listed before another bench “in which one of us is not a party”.
Appearing for Singh, senior advocate Puneet Bali reportedly, alleged that enquiry against Singh was a "complete witch-hunt” and in "complete transgression" of the orders passed by the top court as well as the Bombay High Court.
MEANWHILE
On 6 May, the Bombay High Court (HC) refused to grant interim relief to former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh in the case registered against him by the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) over allegations of corruption and malpractices levelled against him by Singh.
Deshmukh had moved the high court on 3 May seeking to quash the FIR registered by the central agency against him in the case, which stated that preliminary enquiry (PE) prima facie revealed that Deshmukh and unknown persons had attempted to obtain "undue advantage of improper and dishonest performance of his public duty".
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