One more judge of the Madras High Court Bench here on Tuesday recused from hearing an anticipatory bail application filed by garnet baron S. Vaikundarajan, 59, and his brother S. Jegadeesan, 57, in a case booked against them by the CBI on charges of paying Rs.7.5 crore in illegal gratification to A. Subbiah, former chairman of V.O.C. Port Trust at Tuticorin.
Justice R. Mala refused to hear the case citing a news report that appeared in The Hindu on Tuesday about mysterious developments in the case. She did not relent despite requests made by the petitioners’ counsel to carry on with the case. They also claimed that the CBI was not interested in conducting the case before her and was bent upon getting it shifted to some other judge.
Denying the claim, Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) for CBI cases, G.R. Swaminathan, said that the agency had no problem in conducting the case before her and that top officials, including an officer in the rank of Deputy Inspector-General of Police, were present in the court. He also produced “incriminating materials” against the accused in a sealed cover for the perusal of the court.
“Whatever has been reported in the newspaper is factually correct. The mystery they have referred to is why Justice G. Chockalingam, who dismissed the first anticipatory bail application of the accused on November 7, chose to recuse from hearing the present second application yesterday without assigning any reason. There is nothing in the news report against this court,” the SPP said.
However, the judge stood steadfast on her decision to recuse and told the SPP: “If you have no objections to grant of anticipatory bail, I will record that and pass orders. Otherwise, I don’t want to hear this case on merits.”
The SPP replied that he had strong objections and he would not agree for the grant of bail without arguments. Therefore, the judge adjourned the hearing to December 30.
The news report carried on Tuesday had stated that the second anticipatory bail application of the accused originally came up for hearing before Mr. Justice Chockalingam on Friday and he adjourned it to January 5. Nevertheless, the application was listed before the same judge on Monday under the caption ‘For advance hearing’ and he recused from hearing the matter.
The judge also directed the High Court Registry to place the matter before some other judge after obtaining necessary orders from the administrative judge of the Bench. Within hours thereafter, the matter was listed before Ms. Justice Mala who adjourned the hearing to Tuesday at the request of the SPP who sought time to make his submissions.
