Second SC judge recuses from hearing ex-Kerala Minister's plea

A second Supreme Court judge today recused from hearing a matter involving former Kerala transport minister Thomas Chandy, facing allegations of land encroachment.
Justice A M Sapre became the second judge to recuse from hearing the matter, a month after Justice A M Khanwilkar, who was a part of the bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, had recused himself on December 15.
On that day, the matter was assigned to the bench having Justice Khanwilkar as one of the three judges.
After the recusal of Justice Khanwilkar, the matter was listed by the CJI before a bench comprising Justices R K Agrawal and Sapre.

The apex court registry had last month received a letter from a lawyer representing Chandy that it should not be assigned to a bench in which Justice A M Sapre is one of the judges.
However, as the matter came up before him and Justice Agrawal, Sapre preferred to recuse himself from hearing the matter.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Chandy today, said the letter was written to seek shifting of the matter from the bench which had Justice Sapre. Then another letter was written seeking replacement of senior advocate Vivek Tankha in the matter.
The bench said Justice Sapre will not hear the matter.

The letter of December 13 last year was written by advocate-on-record K R Sasiprabhu to the secretary general of Supreme Court saying senior advocate Tankha, who appeared for Chandy, "on account of personal reasons does not appear before the bench in which Justice A M Sapre is a part of".
"The petitioner will lose the service of an able lawyer who is well versed in the facts and laws involved in the case," the letter said while referring to Tankha who represented Chandy even in the Kerala High Court.
"In the circumstances, I will be praying for listing of the matter before another bench immediately after the winter vacations. This letter may kindly be circulated among the judges, at my risk to avoid inconvenience to their lordships," the advocate-on-record said.

Chandy had moved the apex court challenging the November 14 last year order of the Kerala High Court dismissing his petition against the report of Alappuzha district collector on alleged encroachments by a company in which he had stake.
The high court had held that a minister cannot file a petition against his own government, which had ordered the district collector to look into the issue and submit a report.
There was a violation of the collective cabinet responsibility by the minister, the high court had held.
Following the remarks made by high court, Chandy was forced to resign, the reason which also found mention in the letter written to the secretary general of Supreme Court.

"The petitioner herein was till recently a cabinet minister in the government of Kerala but was constrained to resign on account of certain observations made by the high court of Kerala in the impugned judgement, while dismissing the writ petition filed by him challenging the order passed by the district collector without hearing his version," the letter had said.