Supreme Court Agrees To Hear Tomorrow Satyender Jain's Plea Challenging Transfer Of His Bail Plea To Another Judge

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to list tomorrow the petition filed by Delhi Government Minister Satyender Jain challenging the Delhi High Court order which upheld the transfer of his bail plea to another court.

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal mentioned the matter before Chief Justice of India UU Lalit for urgent listing tomorrow. The CJI agreed to list the matter tomorrow as the first item.

On September 22, Principal District & Sessions Judge at Patiala House, Delhi had allowed the application made by the Enforcement Directorate to transfer the plea of Satyender Jain from Special Judge Geetanjali Goel to Special Judge Vikas Dhull. The ED had raised apprehensions of bias against the judge on the ground that the ED's objections to shifting Jain to hospital were not considered. The ED had contended that Jain was faking illness and that being the Health Minister, he could influence doctors to fabricate medical records.

"The Ld. Judge is a very upright officer, however, all the circumstances taken together are sufficient to raise a reasonable apprehension in the mind of the petitioner as a common man, not of any actual bias but of a probable bias", the Sessions Court observed while allowing ED's pela.

 Though Jain challenged the transfer order before the Delhi High Court, his challenge was dismissed. A single bench of Justice Yogesh Khanna on October 1 upheld the transfer order after observing that the ED's apprehensions were "not flimsy or baseless".

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