Supreme Court to decide on pleas for Mishra's recusal from land case on Oct 23

NEW DELHI: A Constitution bench on Wednesday reserved its order on pleas seeking recusal of Justice Arun Mishra , who is heading the bench hearing the case on land acquisition law , even as the judge made it clear that he will not "succumb" to pressure tactics and that parties cannot be allowed to indulge in bench-hunting.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra, Indira Banerjee, Vineet Saran, M R Shah and S Ravindra Bhat said it will pass order on the issue of recusal on October 23 before deciding on the interpretation of Section 24(2) of the land acquisition law.

Justice Mishra, however, said seeking his recusal was an attempt at bench-hunting and to compel the Chief Justice of India to reconstitute the bench. He said it was not farmers and their associations which are seeking his recusal but some powerful persons are running the campaign against him and raising questions on his impartiality in deciding the point of law.

"We have to protect the institution. There has been systemic attempt to undermine the institution. We know who are the persons behind it. This is not the way I can be compelled to recuse. The way things are happening in this court is shocking," Justice Mishra said.

Senior advocate Shyam Divan, who is appearing for one of parties seeking recusal of the judge, said no body is guiding the parties from outside and he was just raising the issue of judicial propriety that a judge should not hear appeal on a judgement authored by him and "it is being followed in different country across the world including in SC."

"Is it not crossing propriety that you want a particular judge to head a bench," Justice Mishra said. In response, senior advocates Divan and Gopal Sankarnarayanan said they are not indulging in bench-hunting and are also not seeking that a particular judge should head the bench but only seeking recusal of one judge.

Strongly opposing the plea of recusal, solicitor general Tushar Mehta said it would be "disastrous" if Justice Mishra recuses and the judge would be failing in his duty to adjudicate the issue.