Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court Justice D H Vaghela Tuesday recused himself from hearing an appeal filed by a DMK member challenging the continuation of a controversial Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) in the disproportionate assets case against former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa. Justice Vaghela ordered that the case be posted before a new bench after an advocate for SPP Bhavani Singh expressed the opinion that Justice Vaghela had passed adverse remarks against the conduct of Bhavani Singh in the case in the past. The recusal by the Chief Justice, who was heading a division bench, came in the course of a hearing for admission of a writ appeal filed by DMK leader K Anbazhagan. The DMK leader is seeking an order to set aside a single judge’s refusal to cancel the services of Bhavani Singh as the SPP before a special bench that is hearing Jayalalithaa’s appeal against a prison sentence in the assets case. A single-judge bench of the Karnataka High Court of Justice Anand Byrareddy had last month directed Anbazhagan to approach the Supreme Court for clarification on the continuation of Bhavani Singh as the SPP in the case. Anbazhagan in his appeal to the division bench argued that the single judge should not have allowed Singh to continue as the SPP after stating categorically that the power of the Tamil Nadu Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption to appoint their own counsel had been taken away when the case was transferred to Karnataka in 2003.
