New Delhi: Two judges of the Madhya Pradesh high court on Tuesday (October 28) recused from hearing the suo motu case pertaining to a youth from Other Backward Classes (OBC) category being allegedly forced to wash the feet of a Brahmin man and drink the water.

A division bench of Justices Vivek Agarwal and A.K. Singh on Tuesday recused from hearing the matter and ordered that the case be placed before a bench headed by the Chief Justice, reported The Times of India.

As reason for the move, the judges said that cases which were initially heard by a bench of Justice Atul Shreedharan were being dealt with by the CJ bench. Earlier this month, Justice Sreedharan was transferred from the Madhya Pradesh high court to the Allahabad high court. The Supreme Court Collegium had recommended Shreedharan’s transfer to Allahabad high court instead of the Chhattisgarh high court after a reconsideration was sought by the Union government.

Earlier, a bench led by Justice Shreedharan had taken suo motu cognisance of the incident and took it for hearing based on media reports. The bench had directed the Damoh police and administration to invoke National Security Act (NSA) against the accused.

Thereafter, five people were booked under NSA and arrested.

According to Supreme Court Observer, the Supreme Court Collegium’s decision to publicly record the government’s request is an unprecedented one. However, the resolution of the Collegium was silent on why the reconsideration was sought.

During his time in Jammu and Kashmir, Justice Shreedharan’s bench had struck down several preventive detention orders under the Public Safety Act.

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