Third judge recuses himself from hearing PIL challenging Rao’s appointment as interim CBI chief

The court then ordered, “List this matter before a Bench, of which one of us (N.V. Ramana, J.) is not a member.”

Senior counsel Dushyant Dave, appearing for the petitioner NGO Common Cause, requested that the matter be listed for hearing on February 1. The court recorded this in the order and directed the Registry “to place this matter before Hon’ble Chief Justice, for listing of this matter before an appropriate Bench”.

The petition has now been listed for Friday before a bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Navin Sinha.

Rao was appointed CBI interim director on January 10, after its Director Alok Verma was transferred out by a high-powered committee comprising PM Narendra Modi, Justice A K Sikri and Leader of the Congress parliamentary party in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge. The NGO subsequently challenged Rao’s appointment in the Supreme Court.

The PIL first came up for hearing on January 21 before a bench headed by CJI Ranjan Gogoi. The CJI, however, recused himself, saying that he was scheduled to be on the high-powered committee which was scheduled to meet again on January 24 to choose a new CBI director.

The CJI bench directed that the matter be listed before court number 2 on January 24. Accordingly, it came up before court number 2 headed by Justice A K Sikri on the scheduled date. However, Justice Sikri also recused himself, saying he was not in a position to hear it, and told the NGO’s lawyers, “you should understand my position… This has to go before another bench.”

The high-powered committee met on January 24, but it could not take a decision on any name.