Overview

• Chief Justice Sheel Nagu stepped aside on July 3 after defence counsel objected to his dual administrative and judicial involvement in the petition’s handling
• Roop Bansal’s plea seeks to quash an April 2023 FIR by the Haryana Anti-Corruption Bureau alleging a conspiracy to bribe a trial court judge under the Prevention of Corruption Act and IPC
• Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi argued that shifting the case from Justice Mahabir Singh Sindhu’s bench to the chief justice’s diminished public confidence in the process
• In May, Nagu had invoked his master-of-roster authority to withdraw the matter from a single judge who had reserved judgment, citing institutional integrity concerns
• The Enforcement Directorate has applied to intervene in the fresh proceedings amid overlapping money-laundering and corruption investigations