NEW DELHI: It seldom happens that a counsel has to mention an appeal in the Supreme Court five times in two months to merely get it listed before a bench for hearing and when it finally happens, the court issues notice and then recalls it within an hour saying one of the judges had recused.

It was intriguing for counsel Anirudh Singh that he had to mention five times before CJI Dipak Misra to get the appeal by Antar Singh Darbar, who has challenged a Madhya Pradesh high court order dismissing his petition seeking disqualification of BJP ’s Kailash Vijayvargiya as MLA, listed before a bench. In the normal course, mentioning just once before the CJI leads to listing of the petition before an ‘appropriate’ bench.

Singh mentioned this petition on January 22, February 8, February 19, March 12 and March 16 and every time the counsel was assured that the matter would be listed soon. However, the matter got listed only after Singh mentioned it before the CJI on March 16 and complained that despite several mentions, the matter had not been listed.

On Monday, Darbar’s appeal seeking Vijayvargiya’s disqualification on the alleged ground of employing corrupt practices during election was listed for hearing before a bench of Justices R K Agrawal and A M Sapre.

Darbar’s counsel, Anupam Lal Das and Ravindra Singh Chhabra , came out happy from the court as the bench issued notice and sought responses in four weeks. The bench also permitted the appellant to take a copy of the notice and serve it on the respondents.

Within an hour, Das and Chhabra were asked through the court case digital display system to contact the court master immediately.

The court official informed the counsel that the order issuing notice had been recalled as Justice Sapre had recused from the case. This brings the appellant back to square one, as the petition will have to be mentioned yet again before the CJI for listing.

Vijayvargiya was elected to the Madhya Pradesh assembly as a BJP candidate from Dr Ambedkar Nagar in Mhow. Defeated Congress candidate Antar Singh Darbar challenged Vijayvargiya’s election in the high court on three grounds — distribution of medals and trophies during Muharram after the election campaign was over; distribution of money to women voters in Pensionpura which was videographed by journalists; and distribution of liquor by his election agent. The HC dismissed the election appeal on November 3 last year and Darbar filed an appeal in the apex court on December 11.

Generally, appeals get listed for hearing within a month of filing. As it was not listed for a long time, the first mentioning before the CJI for early listing was made on January 22, followed by four more such requests.

