The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a plea by Sanjiv Bhatt – sacked IPS officer of Gujarat cadre – seeking the recusal of Justice M R Shah from hearing his petition to submit additional evidence to support his appeal in a 1990 custodial death case.
Seeking the recusal of Justice Shah, Bhatt said that there was a reasonable apprehension of bias as Justice Shah as a Gujarat High Court judge had castigated him (the sacked IPS officer) while hearing his plea linked to the same FIR.
The plea by Bhat was opposed by the Gujarat government and the complainant who described it “forum shopping”, asking why he had not raised this objection earlier.
A bench of Justice Shah and Justice C.T. Ravikumar rejected the plea by Bhatt and refused the recusal by Justice Bhatt.
Bhatt has approached the top court challenging his conviction in a custodial death of one Prabhudas Vaishnani, who was caught by Jamnagar police after a communal riot.
On Tuesday (May 9), senior advocate Devadatt Kamat, appearing for Bhatt, had told the bench that Justice Shah as a high court judge had passed strictures and castigated Bhatt while hearing Bhatt’s petition arising out of the same FIR.
“I have the highest respect for this court. But justice should not only be done but also seen to be done. Judicial propriety demands that your lordship may not hear the matter,” Kamat had said, adding that the issue is of reasonable apprehension of bias.
However, senior advocate Maninder Singh, representing the Gujarat government, had opposed Bhatt’s plea of recusal and said this is not bona fide ground as several other cases have been heard by Justice Shah where no such prayer was made.
“You cannot have prayer for recusal on the grounds of selective basis. Selective prayer for recusal would constitute contempt of court,” Singh had said.
In August 2022, Bhatt had withdrawn his plea in the top court seeking suspension of his life sentence in the 30-year-old custodial death case.
Earlier, the Gujarat high court had refused to suspend Bhatt’s sentence and had observed that he had scant respect for courts and deliberately tried to misuse the process of law. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in June 2019 in the case.
The case relates to the custodial death of Prabhudas Vaishnani, who was among 133 people arrested by Jamnagar police after a communal riot broke out following a bandh call in view of BJP leader L K Advani’s Rath Yatra.
Subsequently, his brother lodged an FIR accusing Bhatt, who was then posted as additional superintendent of police in Jamnagar, and six other policemen accusing them of torturing Vaishnani to death in custody.