A Bombay High Court Bench on Friday recused itself from hearing a petition in the Adarsh Housing Society scam case.
When the matter came up for hearing before the division Bench of Justices P.V. Hardas and Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi, Justice Hardas said, “Not before the Bench in which my colleague Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi is a part.”
Petitioner Pravin Wategaonkar told The Hindu that an alternative Bench will hear his and all other petitions related to the Adarsh case.
Previous recusal
This is the second recusal in the matter. Last June, a Division Bench of Justices V.M. Kanade and P.D. Kode had recused itself from hearing the matter.
Mr. Wategaonkar in July 2013 filed a petition seeking to make the former Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde an accused in the case. The CBI filed a reply giving a clean chit to Mr. Shinde on the ground that the evidence against him was “deficient and insufficient.” In their 2013 affidavit filed before the High Court, the CBI said there was no evidence to suggest that Mr. Shinde had abused his position as a public servant.
The petitioner then sought the court’s directions to the CBI to produce all the evidence the agency had gathered during the course of its investigation. He pointed out that as per the report of the Adarsh Judicial Commission, Mr. Shinde, in his capacity as Chief Minister, failed to heed a suggestion from the Finance department against allotment of land to the Adarsh Housing Society.
Petitioner Pravin Wategaonkar told The Hindu that an alternative Bench will hear his and all other petitions related to the Adarsh case
