A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma of the top court recorded the submission by the petitioner that Justice Sandeep Kumar of the High Court had reserved the anticipatory bail plea for orders on April 7, 2022.
However, no order was delivered for almost a year before the Justice Kumar released the matter from his roster.
Eventually another judge of the High Court heard the plea and rejected it.
“We are extremely surprised as to how the order on the petition seeking anticipatory bail could be kept pending for one year,” the Supreme Court said in its order dated November 28.
The Court, therefore, directed the Registrar General of Patna High Court to get the details of the matter and submit a report to the apex court before January 8, 2024.
However, as per the orders available on Patna High Court website, Justice Kumar released the matter from his roster on April 4 after the petitioner’s counsel informed him that he (the judge) was earlier a lawyer in one of the bail matters connected to the same money laundering case
“In these circumstances, let this case be listed before another Bench after taking due permission from Hon’ble the Chief Justice,” Justice Kumar had noted in his order.
Source: Barandbench
