Kashish Jain
Supreme Court judge, Justice V. Ramasubramanian recused himself from hearing a Plea by PDP leader Abdul Nazir Maudany to relax his bail conditions and a permit for him to stay in his lockdown in Kerela till the pendency of the trial in the 2008 Bengaluru bomb blast case in which he is an accused.
The Bench was headed by Chief Justice Sharad A. Bobde. It also comprised Justice A.S. Bopanna. The Bench adjourned the hearing.
Justice Ramasubramanian recollected in the Court that he had appeared for Maudany before the Madras High Court several years ago.
Maudany is presently represented by Senior Advocate Jayant Bhushan and advocate Haris Neeraj.
In the previous meeting, the CJI had orally stated that Maudany was a dangerous man.
In a matter that dates backs 2013, the Supreme Court had granted Maudany bail since he already underwent judicial custody for four years and was suffering from various health ailments.
The Supreme Court’s bail came after the Karnataka authorities had undertaken to complete the trial within four months.
His current application states,
“More than six years have elapsed and the trial has still not been concluded. The trial was protracted on account of the lethargic attitude of the respondent (State of Karnataka). The case before the trial court is crawling at snail’s pace and the progress of the trial was hampered on several occasions due to various reasons such as recall and re-examination of witnesses, transfer of special public prosecutor thrice, transfer of presiding officer thrice, and now on account of the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic.”
