SC judge Justice SV Bhatti recuses from hearing Chandrababu Naidu’s petition, the matter to be heard by CJI on October 3

On September 27, 2023, Supreme Court judge Justice SV Bhatti recused himself from hearing a petition filed by former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Nara Chandrababu Naidu. The petition sought to quash the criminal proceedings against him concerning a multi-core skill development scam in the state. Yesterday, the matter was mentioned before a SC bench comprising Justice SV  Bhatti and Justice Sanjiv Khanna. 

While hearing the case, Justice Khanna told Senior Advocate appearing for Naidu, “My brother has some reservations about hearing the matter.” To which, SA replied, “We can say nothing about that. Please list it as early as possible;” therefore, Justice Khanna said, “Subject to the orders of the Hon’ble the Chief Justice, the present special leave petition be placed before a bench of which one of us, my brother is not a member.” 

Further, the SA Sidharth Luthra mentioned the matter for urgent listing before Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud. In this context, CJI agreed to list the matter for hearing on 3 October 2023. Along with this, the request to restrain the trial judge from dealing with the police custody application was declined by him.