Supreme Court judge U.U. Lalit on Monday recused himself from hearing a petition of former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala, who along with his son Ajay Singh Chautala and three others, is serving a 10-year jail term in the teachers’ recruitment scam case.
“I have appeared for some of the accused in the case,” Justice Lalit, who was sitting on the bench headed by Justice F.M. Ibrahim Kalifulla, said.
Earlier also, Justice Lalit had recused himself from hearing the plea of Chautala’s son Ajay on similar ground.
The apex court has now posted the appeals of various convicts for hearing on July 21.
>Chautalas and 53 others, including two IAS officers, were convicted on January 16, 2013, by the trial court for illegally recruiting 3,206 junior basic trained (JBT) teachers in Haryana in 2000.
All the 55 convicts have been sentenced under Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 418(cheating), 467 (forgery), 471 (using forged documents as genuine) of IPC and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Initially, there were 62 accused in the case. While two died before filing of the charge sheet, four died during the trial of the case and one was discharged by the trial court.
