Ex-HC registrar seeks recusal of full bench, told to approach CJ

A Punjab and Haryana high court full bench asked the former registrar (recruitment) of high court, Balwinder Kumar Sharma on Friday, to approach chief justice (CJ) with the demand to transfer the case from the full bench to some other bench, with judges from other courts.

The high court full bench comprising justice Rajesh Bindal, justice Rajan Gupta and justice GS Sandhawalia was hearing a plea from Sharma seeking recusal of full bench hearing petitions related to Haryana civil service (judicial) exam leak case in which he is an accused.

The examination for 109 Haryana Civil Service (HCS) (judicial) posts was conducted on July 16 last year. Following a petition in August 2017, an HC probe panel had found that the paper was leaked. Sharma, and two women candidates — Sunita and Sushila, were named as the main accused. The police have now filed a chargesheet against the accused. The matter is being monitored by this full bench.

In the application filed before the full bench, Sharma had questioned as to how the full bench was constituted and also sought to know why the single judge who initially dealt with the matter when the controversy broke, was not associated with the bench. The full bench was constituted by an administrative order and not by any judicial order, which is against the high court rules, Sharma had told court.

Further, he had alleged that he was being framed and apprehended the role of some higher ups in that and had also sought call records of special investigation team (SIT) members. After being pulled up by the HC full bench, the trial court order allowing him to obtain call records of SIT was challenged by the Chandigarh Police recently.

The full bench, which directed registration of an FIR against Sharma, is monitoring the probe and also hearing bail plea of Sharma, which is against the principal of natural justice, the application said. He also pointed out that the same full bench is issuing directions to trial court and SIT on probe and also adjudicating his bail plea.

Meanwhile, the full bench also asked high court administration to take a decision on administrative side about a letter received from the SIT seeking some record of earlier recruitments and documents related to Sharma.