NEW DELHI: A Delhi High Court bench on Thursday recused itself from hearing a petition filed by a retired district court judge for initiating contempt proceedings against a lawyer who allegedly interfered with the administration of justice after being convicted of assaulting the former judicial officer who was also an advocate at the time of the incident.
‘At the request of Sujata Kohli, the petitioner who appears in person, in order to obviate any possibility of alleged bias, we consider it appropriate to recuse from hearing the proceedings,’ said the bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Justice Amit Sharma.
On October 29 last year, a trial court had convicted Delhi High Court Bar Association’s (DHCBA) ex-President Rajiv Khosla in an assault case. Complainant Kohli had alleged that Khosla grabbed her by her hair and dragged her in August 1994. Kohli, who was a lawyer at Tis Hazari court at the time, became a judge in the Delhi judiciary and retired as a District and Sessions Judge in 2020.
In her petition, she claimed the trial court proceedings on sentencing were ‘hijacked’ and ‘obstructed’ by Khosla and his supporters. She alleged that after his conviction, Khosla made an ‘appeal to the Bar bodies to join him’ and they sided with him while deciding to go on a strike. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Gajender Singh Nagar had directed Khosla to pay a compensation of Rs 40,000 to the state and victim.
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