Another judge excuses himself from Ambani gas imbroglio

If the natural gas imbroglio involving the two Ambani is not convoluted enough, a spate of recusals by judges hearing the various related cases is not helping to speed up its resolution.

On Thursday, one of the judges on the two-judge Supreme Court bench hearing a plea of Anil Ambani's Reliance Power on its proposed Dadri power plant in Uttar Pradesh opted out before the hearing could even start.

Justice B S Chauhan recused himself on the ground that he had partly heard the case in the Allahabad high court. The high court had quashed the state's notification for using emergency powers to buy land for Reliance-ADAG's proposed power plant on writ petitions of farmers.

The ruling has been challenged by Reliance Power in the apex court.

When the case came up for hearing before a bench comprising chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice B S Chauhan, the latter showed his reluctance to hear it at the outset, even though both Reliance Power's counsel Mukul Rohatgi and the UP government's counsel Harish Salve said they had no objection.

The case will now come up for hearing on 18 January before another bench.

Earlier, in the main case between Mukesh Ambani's RIL and Anil Ambani's Reliance Natural Resources Ltd over supply of gas from Krishna-Godavari basin, Justice R V Raveendran had recused himself on the ground that his daughter had worked with a lawyers' firm advising RIL.
Soon after, Justice Markandey Katju withdrew from a separate case relating to RIL in a related matter.