Chennai: Another judge of the Madras High
Court on Friday recused himself from hearing a petition by AIADMK
chief Jayalalithaa seeking to quash the 1996 `birthday gift
case` filed by CBI against her.
The recusal by Justice T Mathivanan comes four days
after Justice C T Selvam withdrew himself from hearing the
petition after Jayalalithaa filed a memo stating that the
judge had appeared against her when he was additional public
prosecutor for the state government.
The former Tamil Nadu chief minister wanted the
petition to be listed before some other judge. She had sought
to quash the case citing `inordinate and unexplained delay`.
On August 23, when the petition came up for hearing,
Justice Selvam directed that it be placed before the Chief
Justice for posting before another judge.
Accordingly, the petition was posted before Justice
Mathivanan, but he also declined to hear it. The Judge did not
state any reason for recusing himself from the case.
According to CBI, on the occasion of her birthday in
1992 Jayalalithaa had accepted 89 demand drafts worth Rs two
crore from 57 people drawn on various banks favouring her.
The CBI claimed that two former AIADMK ministers K A
Shengottaiyan and Alagu Thirunavukarasu had also presented her
with DDs for Rs 22.53 lakh and Rs 22.50 lakh respectively.
PTI
