State withdraws bias charge against judge

The Bombay High Court on Monday took to task the Maharashtra government for the manner in which it was withdrawing its charges of bias against senior judge A.S. Oka in the noise pollution matter, saying it should “show remorse” through an affidavit.

The direction was given after the Maharashtra government said it was “withdrawing unconditionally” the charges made against Justice Oka.

The high court has now asked the government to tender an apology to Chief Justice Manjula Chellur for misleading her and getting all the noise pollution matters transferred from Justice Abhay Oka.

The government had last week accused Justice Oka of harbouring “serious bias” against the state government over noise pollutions matters. Following this, Chief Justice Chellur had transferred all the cases to a special bench.

The government faced flak from the legal fraternity for its views and the CJ handed over all matters relating to noise pollution back to a division bench headed by Justice Oka.

On Monday, the government moved an application before a division bench of Justice Oka and Justice Riyaz Chagla, stating that the government’s intention has been misunderstood and misinterpreted and has been projected as if it is against the judiciary. The applica-tion withdrew allegations of bias unconditionally and expressed regret.