MUMBAI: Three judges of the Bombay high court (HC) have recused themselves from hearing a plea filed by the chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director (MD) of HDFC Bank, Sashidhar Jagdishan, to quash a First Information Report (FIR) registered against him at Bandra police station on June 8, based on a complaint by the Lilavati Kirtilal Mehta Medical Trust.
The Trust, which owns and manages the prominent Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai, had alleged that Jagdishan had accepted kickbacks worth ₹2.05 crore in exchange for providing financial advice to help the Chetan Mehta Group, erstwhile trustees of the hospital, to retain illegal control over the Trust’s governance. Jagdishan had approached HC for quashing the FIR on June 18.
On Thursday, when the matter was listed before the bench of Justices MS Sonak and Jitendra Jain, the latter disclosed that he held shares of HDFC Bank. The counsel for Prashant Mehta, the Trust’s authorised representative, advocate Nitin Pradhan objected, following which Justice Jain recused himself from the matter.
He was the third judge to do so in less than 10 days.
The case was first listed before a bench of Justices Ajey Gadkari and Rajesh Patil, the day Jagdishan moved court to quash the FIR. Justice Patil recused himself, following which it was mentioned before a bench led by Justice Sarang Kotwal, who also followed suit. On that day, Justice Gadkari had said, “My brother (Justice Patil) does not take up matters relating to HDFC.” He however did not elaborate the reason behind Patil’s decision. On the other hand, Justice Kotwal recusing remained unexplained.
Before this, seven other judges had recused themselves from hearing any case related to the HDFC bank, confirmed Justice Amit Desai, senior counsel appearing for Jagdishan. “Justices Revati Mohite Dere, GS Kulkarni, Arif Doctor, BP Colabawalla, MM Sathaye, RI Chagla and Sharmila Deshmukh had previously recused from hearing matters related to Lilavati on account of their past associations with the Trust, which rendered them unsuitable to hear the matter,” said Desai.
On June 18, the FIR filed at Bandra police station, was registered following an order by a Bandra magistrate court under Section 175(3) of the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita, based on an application moved by the Trust through Mehta. The FIR invoked serious charges under the Indian Penal Code including Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant) and 420 (cheating).
In a detailed public statement issued earlier this month, the Trust alleged that the ₹2.05 crore payment was part of a larger conspiracy to “loot” and manipulate its decision-making processes in favour of the Chetan Mehta Group.