The matter will now be referred back to the Chief Justice who will send it to another judge.
A Gujarat High Court judge Wednesday recused himself from hearing suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt's petition seeking relief in a 1990 case of alleged police atrocity in which one person died in Jamnagar.
When the matter came up for hearing before Justice JC Upadhyay, he said "not before me", without stating any reason.
The matter will now be referred back to the Chief Justice who will send it to another judge.
Bhatt, in his petition filed yesterday, challenged the legality and validity of a Jamnagar court order refusing to defer framing of charges against him in the over two-decades old case. The IPS officer has sought quashing of the order and a stay on court proceedings against him.
Bhatt said the Jamnagar Court, while rejecting his plea for deferment of framing of charges, did not consider his criminal revision application and also a plea for condonation of delay of 21 years in the case pending before it.
He contended that once the court goes ahead with framing of charges against him and other accused, his criminal revision plea would become infructuous which would violate his fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution.
On December 9, a fast-track court of judge N P Solanki in Jamkhambhalia taluka of Jamnagar rejected Bhatt's plea to defer framing of charges. The court scheduled next hearing on December 27 when the charges are likely to be framed against the police officer and six other accused.
According to case details, one Prahbudas Vaishnani, arrested during a communal flare-up in Jamkhambhalia in 1990, died in a hospital a few days after he was released from police custody.
Vaishnani's family members filed a complaint against Bhatt, who was then posted in Jamnagar, and six other policemen alleging atrocity leading to his death.
The case was probed by Gujarat CID, which gave Bhatt and other policemen a clean chit. However, the magistrate presiding over the case did not accept the CID report and initiated criminal proceedings against the IPS officer and others.
The Gujarat government had then taken a stand that Bhatt and others acted in accordance with their official responsibilities, and filed a revision petition in the Jamnagar sessions court in 1996 seeking to stop the criminal proceedings.
The revision petition was withdrawn by the government in July this year, thereby exposing Bhatt, a vocal critic of Chief Minister Narendra Modi, and others to prosecution.
Bhatt has accused Modi of complicity in the 2002 post-Godhra riots.
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