Supreme Court Judge Justice N V Ramana on Thursday recused himself from hearing a petition challenging the Centre’s decision to appoint M Nageswara Rao as interim CBI director.
Justice Ramana became the third judge of the apex court to recuse himself from hearing the matter. Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi and Justice A K Sikri had earlier recused themselves from adjudicating the case.
As soon as the matter was called out for hearing. Justice Ramana said: “I cannot hear this matter for some personal reasons.”
While recusing himself from hearing the matter, Justice Ramana disclosed that Rao is from his home state and he had attended the wedding ceremony of Rao’s daughter.
Justice Ramana said, this will have to go to some other bench.
NGO Common Cause has approached the top court challenging the Centre’s decision to appoint Rao as the interim CBI chief.
On January 10, Rao was made interim CBI chief till the appointment of a new director, after the removal of Alok Verma.
