Day 20 Arguments

January 31st 2020

In today’s hearing, the Bench took up the transfer application filed by the accused in two of the cases it is monitoring – RC No.9 and 10 of 2018. The application was made on the ground that the judge dealing with the above cases had made some prejudicial remarks against the accused, potentially prejudicing the outcome in RC No.9 and 10 of 2018. Adv. Siddharth Dave, appearing for the accused submitted that the remarks were such that it appeared that the judge had already made up his mind. Thus, the case needs to be transferred to another judge, submitted Adv. Dave.

The Bench though was not inclined to allow the application. It noted that the observations were made only in the context of explaining the delay in filing the complaint by the prosecutrix. Moreover, they did not have any bearing on the merits of the case itself, added the Bench. The Bench disposed of the application with a direction to the concerned judge to make the decision based purely on the evidence in RC No. 9 and 10 of 2018.