New Delhi, June 04: The Delhi High Court today extended till further order the interim bail of former High Court judge Shamit Mukherjee and fixed July 15 for the hearing of his regular bail petition. Interim bail of Mukherjee, who was arrested in connection with the DDA scam, was extended by a vacation bench of Justice B K Khan on humanitarian grounds of his wife's illness on which he was granted the relief earlier for a month.

The court directed the former judge to furnish a personal bond of Rs 50,000 and a surety of the like amount.

The court also issued notice to CBI on his plea for grant of regular bail stating that the matter would be heard before a regular bench on July 15.

Mukherjee's interim bail was to expire on June 12.

CBI counsel R K Dutt had sought that the plea for hearing the extension of Mukherjee's interim bail be fixed for June 13 as he had to take instruction from the agency on the matter.

But the judge said it was the court's discretion to extend the interim bail.

Earlier, senior advocate R K Jain, appearing for Mukherjee submitted that the former judge was seeking the extension of interim bail on the grounds of his wife's illness which was not opposed by the CBI when he was granted the similar relief on May 5.

CBI has registered a case against the former judge and four others, including sacked DDA vice-chairman Subhash Sharma, alleged middleman Dharambir Khattar, suspended DDA employee Ashok Kapoor and hotelier Vinod Khatri, for alleged abuse of official position by entering into a criminal conspiracy.

Bureau Report