New Delhi, May 9 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its order on a plea by sacked IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt seeking the recusal of Justice MR Shah from hearing his petition to submit additional evidence to support his appeal in the Gujarat High Court against conviction in a 1990 custodial death case.
Bhatt's lawyer contended that there was a reasonable apprehension of bias as Justice Shah had castigated the petitioner as a high court judge while hearing his petition linked to the same FIR, but it was opposed by the counsel for the Gujarat government and the complainant who called it "forum shopping" and asked why he had not objected earlier.
An apex court bench of justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar said it would pass the order on Wednesday after it heard submissions from senior advocates Devadatt Kamat, appearing for Bhatt, Maninder Singh, representing the Gujarat government, and Atmaram Nadkarni, appearing for the complainant in the case.
