The Supreme Court on Tuesday deferred hearing on a petition filed by Telugu Desam Party legislator Kanumuru Raghu Ramakrishna Raju seeking cancellation of bail granted to YSR Congress party president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy in the alleged quid pro case.
Reason: one of the judges on the Supreme Court bench – Justice P V Sanjay Kumar – recused himself from the case for personal reasons. Apparently, the judge had argued in one of the cases in favour of Jagan when he was a practising advocate.
When the case came up before his bench, the judge immediately said: “Not before me,” and requested that chief justice of India Sanjeev Khanna transfer the case to another bench.
Accordingly, the CJI announced transfer of the case to another bench headed by Justice Abhay S Oka and directed that the case be heard on December 2.
In August this month, too, the case was posted before Justice Sanjay Kumar bench, but he refused to take up the case then, too. Yet, the registry once again referred the case to the same bench.
In his petition, Raju asked the court to cancel the bail of Jagan and transfer the hearing of the case from Hyderabad high court to another state.
While Jagan’s counsel Ranjit Kumar brought to the notice of the bench that Justice Sanjay Kumar had earlier refused to hear the case, Solicitor General Tushar Mehtra, arguing on behalf of the CBI, too, wanted some more time to file the counter, in view of the changed political scenario in the state.
Justice Sanjay Kumar recused himself from hearing and the CJJ transferred the case to another bench for further hearing on December 2.