A Delhi High Court justice on Friday recused himself from hearing an appeal of Congress leader Jagdish Tytler against the trial court order of reopening a case against him related to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
The matter was listed for hearing in the court of Justice Kailash Gambhir on Friday. Justice Gambhir recused himself from hearing the case, but offered no reasons for doing so.
The case will now come up for hearing before another judge on July 3.
On April 10, the trial court ordered the case be reopened against Tytler and also set aside the Central Bureau of Investigation’s closure report, which gave the Delhi Congress leader a clean chit on the grounds that there was “no evidence” against him.
Tytler, filing an appeal in the court, said: “The trial court order is contrary to the Criminal Procedure Code. The method and mode of investigation by a probe agency is the absolute prerogative of the agency. It is not for the court to direct the agency about which witness should be examined by it.”
Seeking that the trial court order be quashed in the 29—year—old case, the plea said: “The settled position of law is that a direction for investigation can be given only if an offence is prima facie found to have been committed or a person’s involvement is prime facie established. But direction to investigate whether any person has committed an offence or not cannot be legally given.”
