SC judge Justice J.S. Khehar recuses himself from hearing Sahara case

Supreme Court judge Justice J.S.Khehar on Thursday recused himself from hearing a case involving Sahara Group chairman Subrata Roy.

A communication dated May 6, 2014 received from Justice J.S. Khehar was placed before the Chief Justice of India on May 7. On May 7 itself, the CJI has been pleased to constitute another bench to hear the matter relating to the Sahara Group....," Rakesh Sharma, the Deputy Registrar of the apex court, said in a release on Thursday.

The release, read out at a press conference here, said that Justice Khehar had written a letter the day when he and Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan had decided on a petition filed by Sahara Group chief Subrata Roy.

Justice Radhakrishnan, who retired on May 14, has gone on record saying that the bench was under immense pressure in the Sahara case.

The bench of Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and J.S. Khehar in its May 6 judgment had upheld its order jailing Subrata Roy and rejected his claim that rules of natural justice were not followed in the case.

Roy, 65, has been in jail since March 4 for non-refund of over Rs 20,000 crore to depositors, as per directions of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). Roy had been asked by the court to make a fresh proposal for paying Rs 10,000 crore to get bail.

The bench in a strongly-worded judgment had come down heavily on the Group for "systematically" frustrating and flouting all its orders with impunity on refunding investors' money.