After a special court granted bail to dismissed cop Sachin Waze in the infamous Antilia Bomb Scare case, at least three judges of the Bombay High Court have recused from hearing the appeal filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) challenging the bail order.

On Wednesday (September 30), the NIA appeal was listed before a division bench of Justice Bharati Dangre and Justice Ashish Chavan. The bench had on Tuesday evening allowed listing of the matter.

However, when the matter was called out, Justice Dangre, at the outset, refused to hear the appeal citing a 'reasoned' order that she had passed earlier, while recusing from hearing Waze's plea in another criminal case in which he is an accused along with former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh.

At this, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Anil Singh responded saying that this is a different matter.

Justice Dangre responded, "I had passed an order specifically in this matter because this person was involved in some cases related to a minister (Anil Deshmukh)... so I think I should not hear it now and must recuse... I understand that this is a different matter but still there are connections here and there."

Further, Justice Dangre disclosed that Justice Chavan too is not inclined to hear the matter because he had appeared for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the Anil Deshmukh case.

Accordingly, the bench passed an order recusing from hearing the plea.

Notably, on Tuesday evening, the ASG had mentioned the NIA appeal before another division bench of Justice Sarang Kotwal and Justice Ranjitsinha Bhonsale, which has the roster to hear the NIA appeal. However, that bench too recused from hearing the appeal as Justice Kotwal pointed out that Senior Advocate Manoj Mohite had earlier appeared for Waze and that the judge never hears matters of parties represented by Mohite.

To clarify, Justice Kotwal was associated with Mohite during his advocacy days.

Now, that three judges have recused from hearing the appeal, the NIA is likely to mention its plea before Chief Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi, and request him to constitute a special bench for hearing its appeal.