After Justice SS Shinde of the Bombay High Court, on July 19, heaped praises for terror accused Naxal sympathiser Stan Swamy, the lawyers’ collective have appealed to the CJI to ask the Justice to recuse himself from hearing the Bhima Koregaon cases.
Legal Rights Observatory (LRO), in a letter to the Chief Justice of India, highlighted that a matter concerning national security must be adjudicated on merit. Quoting Justice Shinde’s praise for Stan Swamy, the letter states that being openly appreciative of the work of the accused casts aspersions on the possibility to deliver an impartial and fair judgment by the Justice.
Owing to this, Justice SS Shinde must be made to recuse himself from the Bhima Koregaon case, urged the letter. LRO took to Twitter to share the same. “Appeal- Justice SS Shinde of Bombay HC has “Great Respect” for terror accused #Catholic Father Stan Swamy. We have drafted a letter to CJI to look into the matter to force the said judge to recuse himself from #KoregaoBhima hearing,” it said in its Tweet.
https://twitter.com/LegalLro/status/1419495008734830596?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwJustice Shinde eulogized Stan Swamy
Stan Lourduswamy, commonly known as Stan Swamy, an undertrial prisoner in the Bhima Koregaon violence case was recently praised highly by Justice SS Shinde after his demise.
Justice Shinde had said that the graceful funeral service of Swamy had touched him. He had said, “I was informed about the timing of the funeral service. Such a wonderful person. The kind of services he has rendered to society. We have respect for his work. Legally, whatever is there against him is a different matter…We normally don’t get time for TV, but we saw this funeral, and it was very graceful.”
https://twitter.com/LiveLawIndia/status/1418449022549860352?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwThis garnered a strong reaction from the public after which the Bombay High Court was compelled to take back its statement. While withdrawing its statement, the judge justified the earlier comment saying that they are also human beings.
NIA, the investigating authority in the Bhima Koregaon cases had objected strongly to Justice Shinde’s remarks on an accused.
84 years old Stan Swamy was under arrest by NIA in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case and died on July 5 in a Mumbai hospital due to health issues. After his death, a Bombay High Court bench of Justices SS Shinde and NJ Jamadar had asked the authorities to conduct a probe into the death. The former was also hearing the bail applications of Stan Swamy.