A Supreme Court bench, headed by Justice RK Agrawal, on Monday recused itself from hearing the petition of BJP leader Subramanian Swamy against the order of an Assam trial court issuing a non-bailable warrant against him for failing to appear before it in a case of alleged hate speech.
PTI reported that the SC bench, also comprising Justice Amitava Roy, referred the matter to another bench saying, "If it has to come before another bench, why apply mind. List it before another bench on June 22."
Appearing for Swamy, senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, urged the bench to issue an interim order to avoid an arrest if the Assam court orders so.
Though the SC bench said that nothing will happen till 22 June, it refused to pass an interim order on Swamy's arrest. However, it allowed Swamy, who is himself a veteran lawyer, to mention it before Chief Justice HL Dattu after Jethmalani sought permission.
A non-bailable warrant was issued on 1 June by a court in Karimganj on a complaint accusing Swamy of delivering an inflammatory address at the Kaziranga University on 15 March. The court had ordered that the arrest warrant be complied with by 30 June.
