Supreme Court justice SVN Bhatti recused himself from hearing former Andhra Pradesh (AP) Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu’s petition on Wednesday, September 27. Naidu had filed a petition against an AP High Court order refusing to quash the FIRs against him in the AP skill development scam. 

As soon as the matter came up before the Supreme Court bench comprising Justice SVN Bhatti and Sanjiv Khanna, Justice Khanna told Naidu's lawyer Harish Salve, "My brother has some reservations about hearing the matter.” The matter was then directed to be listed before a bench not comprising Justice Bhatti.

Justice Bhatti was appointed as an Additional Judge of the AP High Court in April 2013. Post the bifurcation of the Telugu states into Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, he was appointed as a permanent judge of the High Court at Hyderabad (then shared by both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh). In January 2019, he was appointed as a Judge of the newly formed AP High Court. Justice Bhatti also served as a special government pleader between 2000-2003 when Naidu was the Chief Minister of united Andhra Pradesh.

Chandrababu Naidu was arrested by the AP Crime Investigation Department (CID) in the early hours of September 9 from Nandyal. The CID has alleged that the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief was involved in the AP Skill Development Scam for allegedly misleading the state cabinet during his time as Chief Minister and misappropriating Rs 371 crores from the state funds. 

The AP High Court, in its September 22 order, had said that the CID initiated criminal action against the former CM after conducting extensive examination of witnesses and collecting all evidence and as such couldn’t quash the FIRs. Naidu then filed a Special Leave Petition before the Supreme Court challenging this.

In legal parlance, recusal is when a judge withdraws from hearing a case due to a conflict of interest or because of a reasonable apprehension of bias.