Satyendar Jain, a Delhi minister and AAP leader, has asked the Supreme Court to hear his appeal against the transfer of a money laundering case against him to a new trial judge on Tuesday. Following a request from the Enforcement Directorate, the Delhi High Court earlier this month upheld the decision to transfer the case to a new trial judge.
On Monday, senior advocate Kapil Sibal raised the matter in the Supreme Court on Jain’s behalf.
The high court dismissed a petition by Jain, the AAP leader who was arrested by the ED in the case, opposing the judge’s transfer.
“The question is not of integrity or uprightness of the judge or of the authorities over which Jain once had jurisdiction, but is of an apprehension in the mind of a party…,” Justice Yogesh Khanna had said.
“The facts show the department did not merely harbour such apprehension but rather had acted upon it by rushing to this court, hence it cannot be said to be flimsy or not reasonable,” he had added.
In the money laundering case, Jain and the other accused had challenged the trial court’s decision to transfer the case from special judge Geetanjali Goel to special judge Vikas Dhull.
“There is a grave likelihood and a reason to believe that the issues (in the case) have been premeditated,” the trial court had said in its September 23 order.
Jain rushed to the Supreme Court hours after the order was issued to challenge it.