In a dramatic turn, Justice VP Vaish of Delhi High Court on Monday recused himself from the hearing of the high profile National Herald case. The Judge was supposed to hear the case on daily basis from Monday after he passed orders for expediting the case, which was pending before him from the past six months. When the Court assembled, the Judge declared his recusal on hearing the appeal filed by Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi for quashing the summons issued to them by the New Delhi Metropolitan Magistrate.
The main petitioner BJP leader Subramanian Swamy soon approached the bench of Chief Justice G Rohini, complaining about Justice Vaish’s “extraordinary” decision, after “sitting over the case for six months”. After hearing Swamy, the Chief Justice said she will pass orders to transfer the case to another bench soon.
Congress leaders had approached the Delhi High Court Single Bench of Justice Vaish in the first week of August 2014, after Metropolitan Magistrate Gomati Manocha issued summons to Sonia Gandhi and others. The trial court had summoned them as accused after finding prima facie illegalities and violations in the acquisition of control of thousands of crores worth assets and properties of the defunct National Herald newspaper company.
Apart from Sonia and Rahul, the summons was issued Congress leaders Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandez and Gandhi families close aides Suman Dubey and Sam Pitroda. Congress leaders were represented by the party’s top legal brass like Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Singhvi, which often witnessed heated arguments with Swamy in High Court. From September onwards the case was on snail pace in the Delhi High Court followed by frequent adjournments from the side of Congress leaders. After Swamy’s complaining the Judge on December ordered for daily based arguments from January 12. The Judge did not cite any reason for recusing from this politically sensitive case.
“Even on previous week, Judge assured on the daily basis hearing and Sibal was also present at that time in the Court. But Judge’s today’s decision is extra-ordinary. I am expecting an early decision soon from Chief Justice on transferring the case to a new bench,” said Swamy.
Previous week, Swamy had urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to direct CBI to appeal against Justice Vaish’s judgment quashing the summons against Sonia Gandhi’s Private Secretary Vincent George. On December 22, Justice Vaish had ordered quashing of summons of a trial court to George in a Disproportionate Assets case filed by CBI in 2001. Swamy accused CBI’s counsels for “continuing UPA Government’s brief” and asked to appeal with new advocates with integrity.