Reassign sohrab case to justice Dere: lawyers

Mumbai: The Bombay Lawyers Association (BLA) has written to the acting Chief Justice of the Bombay high court seeking reassignment of the Sohrabuddin encounter case to Justice Revati Mohite-Dere who was hearing the case till last week. The assignment was changed and assigned to another judge. The association has said that as Dere had already heard the matter at length and the change of assignment sends a wrong signal to the public and undermines the judiciary and hence in the interest of justice the CJ should initiate urgent remedial measures.

Referring to the recent Supreme Court incident wherein the issue of assignment became a issue of contention between the Chief Justice of India (CJI) and four senior-most judges, the BLA pointed out that as justice Dere had been hearing the encounter case regularly the change in her assignment was intriguing.

The letter also pointed to the fact that justice Dere had consistently reprimanding CBI’s approach in the case as she had been trying to expedite the hearing in light of the ongoing trial in the special CBI court.  

The letter concludes, “…we request your good self to initiate urgent remedial measure.”