Delhi High Court judge Swarana Kanta Sharma on Monday rejected the recusal pleas filed by AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and others in the liquor policy case. The judge emphasized that personal apprehensions cannot be a grounds for recusal and that recusal has to step from law, not narrative.
Kejriwal had argued that Justice Sharma had attended four events organized by the Akhil Bharatiya Adhivakta Parishad, a lawyers' body affiliated with the RSS, and that her son and daughter are empanelled as lawyers for the Centre. However, the judge said that ABAP events are professional gatherings of lawyers and that her children's work as lawyers for the central government is not a conflict of interest.
Justice Sharma also noted that recusal would lead the public to believe that a judge is inclined towards a particular party or ideology and that judicial integrity cannot be put to trial by a litigant. She emphasized that judges are bound by the discipline of their office and that if they bow down to such vilification, it would not only be an attack on the individual judge but on the institution.
