Former IPS Officer Sanjiv Bhat Seeks Recusal Of Justice MR Shah In Case Before Supreme Court

The application stated that the subject matter of the present plea was earlier decided by Justice Shah when he was a judge of the Gujarat High Court.

"...certain issues which is the subject matter of this Special Leave Petition has been decided by one of the judges of this Hon'ble court on an earlier occasion when he was officiating as the Hon'ble Judge of the Hon'ble High Court of Gujarat. Since the present Special Leave Petition is also arising out of the same FIR, the petitioner verily apprehends that the ends of justice will not meet if the present Special Leave Petition is being heard by the same judge", the application reads.

When the matter came up for hearing today, the advocate appearing for the complainant requested a Bench of Justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar to adjourn the matter as she wasn't able to file her response owing to poor health.

At this point, Senior Advocate Devadatt Kamath, appearing for Bhat asked, "Why is my learned friend even here?".

"He never makes me a party in his SLPs. I was a party before the High Court, he's duty bound to make me a party", the counsel for the complainant argued.

On the Bhat's application seeking Justice Shah's recusal, Kamath said that the idea was not to attach 'bias' to the Judge.

"I am not saying that your Lordships are biased or not. I am not saying that. It's an apprehension of bias.....Sometimes we have to do some unpleasant duties (on behalf of the client)".

"Apprehension should have a reasonable nexus. If you want, we can say many things to say... Anyway, let the state counsel come, we will consider", the Bench retorted.

"I can show the apprehension...Let me place my case, your Lordships may pass an order. I have no difficulty", Kamath replied.

There was only one matter before the High Court, that too, with a different controversy, Justice Shah said.

Kamath said that it was arising as part of the same FIR.

The Bench then posted the matter for hearing on January 10.

In July 2019, the Sessions Court at Jamnagar in Gujarat sentenced Bhatt to life imprisonment after finding him guilty of the custodial death of one Prabhudas Madhavji Vaishnani in 1990. Before the trial court, he had applied to produce expert evidence of one doctor to support his argument that the death of Prabhudas was not due to the alleged sit-ups he was made to do forcefully by the police. The trial court rejected the application.

In April 2011, Bhatt had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court accusing the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi of complicity in the 2002 riots. He claimed to have attended a meeting convened by the then CM, Mr. Modi, on February 27, 2002, the day of the communal riots, when instructions were allegedly given to the State Police to not take any action against the perpetrators of violence.

The Court appointed SIT, however, gave a clean chit to Modi. In 2015, Bhatt was removed from the police service, on the ground of "unauthorized absence".

In October 2015, the Supreme Court dismissed Bhatt's plea for constituting a special investigation team (SIT) for cases filed against him by Gujarat Government.

The petition has been filed by Advocate Aljo K Joseph.

Case Title: Sanjivkumar Rajendrabhai Bhatt Vs. The State Of Gujarat | SLP(Crl) No. 9445/2022