Punjab and Haryana HC judge hearing Majithia bail plea recuses

On Monday, the matter came up for hearing before the division Bench of Justices Augustine George Masih and Sandeep Moudgil.

“The matter to be listed before some other Bench, of which one of us (Augustine George Masih, J.) is not a member. The matter be put up before Hon’ble Chief Justice for appropriate orders,” the bench said in an order.

Earlier, after Majithia’s bail plea had been dismissed by a Mohali Court in February, he had moved the Supreme Court seeking to quash the FIR registered against him. The apex court, however, on May 11, had refused to entertain the plea and asked him to instead approach the high court.

In his bail plea filed at the High Court, Majithia through his Senior Advocate RS Cheema and Advocate Arshdeep Singh Cheema submitted that the “present case is blatantly political in nature and has been registered with malafide objective to target the petitioner, who is a mainstream leader of a major opposition party, one month prior to the polls in the state…The then Congress-led government, has left no stone unturned to misuse its power and position for wreaking vengeance against its political opponents and the petitioner is such target”.

However, the Punjab government, opposing the bail plea, had submitted that “more information is required to be collected from within and beyond India to ascertain the backward and forward linkages, including financial transactions of the fugitive accused persons, closely associated with the petitioner (Majithia)”.