A day after justice PB Majmudar said that a former client had telephoned him for a favourable order in a dispute between Goyal
Gas Limited (GGL) and the Ruia Group, he declined from hearing and deciding the case.
The case will now be referred to chief justice Anil Dave to assign it to a new bench for hearing.
A miffed Majmudar said in court on Wednesday that a client from his days at the bar called him up from Ahmedabad seeking an order in favour of GGL. “Such things disturb us,” he had said.
“Nobody understands the plight of a judge.”
DNA had reported in its Thursday edition that the judge had expressed his desire to opt out of the case.
The case, however, has a chequered history. A source told DNA that the bench of justice Majmudar and justice RV More was the eighth bench hearing the case. And this time too the case has remained undecided because the bench refused to hear it after the phone call. This was More’s second stint in the case. He was earlier part of a division bench along with justice SB Mhase, now retired. Mhase too could not finish the hearing because of an illness. There is rumour in the legal circle that another judge, who was presiding over a bench hearing the case, had withdrew from the case after receiving a phone call.
Majmudar and More were hearing four appeals filed by the litigating parties challenging an order passed by a single judge bench of the high court.
GGL has contended that Messers, a German manufacturer of industrial gas, had breached an agreement entered upon with the Ruia Group by transferring 75001 shares to MHL, a joint-venture company between GGL and Messers.
The parties want a decree on the agreement between the companies. Also, they want a restraining order on MHL so that the company cannot transfer anymore of its shares.
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