Another judge recuses himself from bench hearing Mittal, Ruia pleas in SC

In a curious development, justice AR Dave of Supreme Court today became the second judge in four days to recuse himself from the bench hearing the petitions of Bharti Cellular Ltd CMD Sunil Bharti Mittal and Essar Group promoter Ravi Ruia in a graft case related to allocation of additional 2G spectrum in 2002, the PTI reports.

Assigning no reason, justice Dave, who was part of the bench headed by chief justice Altamas Kabir, opted out of hearing the pleas of Mittal and Ruia that challenged the summons issued to them in the case., the report said.

According to the CJI, a new bench would be constituted to hear the matter and in the meantime, the proceedings pending before the trial court would remain "postponed" for another week. The bench had earlier asked the trial court to postpone its hearing till 22 April.

During the previous hearing on 15 April, justice Vikramajit Sen, who was one of the members of the three judge bench headed by the CJI, had also recused himself from hearing the matter giving no reason.

During the last hearing, the CBI had said that the matter needed to be referred to another bench headed by justice GS Singhvi, which had been monitoring the development into the investigation into the 2G spectrum scam and cases arising out of its probe.