Supreme Court judge Justice Shree Chandrashekhar on Tuesday (July 21, 2026) recused himself from hearing a bail petition filed by advocate and activist Surendra Gadling in connection with the 2016 Surjagarh iron ore mine arson case. It is the third such recusal by a Supreme Court judge in the past year, with no reasons assigned on any of the occasions.
The petition was listed before a Bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Shree Chandrashekhar. As the matter was taken up, counsel appearing for the National Investigation Agency (NIA) sought an adjournment. Justice Mishra, however, said the case would have to be placed before another Bench, as Justice Chandrashekhar had expressed his inability to hear it.
“This will have to go before another Bench as my brother [Justice Chandrashekhar] has some difficulty,” Justice Mishra said.
The matter will now be placed before the Chief Justice of India for assigning it to another Bench.
Justice M.M. Sundresh had previously heard the bail plea on several occasions after it was first listed before his Bench on July 9, 2024. However, no substantive hearing took place as the State repeatedly sought adjournments. After presiding over the matter for more than a year, Justice Sundresh recused himself on August 26, 2025, without assigning any reason.
The recusal order did not disclose why Justice Sundresh stepped aside after hearing the matter for over a year. The one-line order merely stated, “Subject to orders of the Honourable Chief Justice, post before another Bench, in which one of us, Justice M.M. Sundresh, is not a member.”
The matter was then listed before Justice Atul S. Chandurkar, who also recused himself from hearing the bail plea on April 2 this year without assigning any reason.
Justice Chandrashekhar served as the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court before his elevation to the Supreme Court last month. The Bombay High Court had rejected Mr. Gadling’s bail plea in January 2023. Justice Chandurkar, too, served as a judge of the Bombay High Court from 2013 until his elevation to the Supreme Court in May 2025.
Last week, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Mr. Gadling, mentioned the matter before a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, seeking an urgent listing of the plea. Mr. Sibal submitted that his client had remained in custody for more than seven years and sought an early hearing.
Earlier, on August 8, 2025, senior advocate Anand Grover, also appearing for Mr. Gadling, had urged the then Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai to list the matter urgently, citing his client’s prolonged incarceration. He had also pointed out that the bail petition had been adjourned repeatedly, largely because the prosecution sought additional time to file its counter affidavit.
“The bail plea has been adjourned 11 times in the Supreme Court,” Mr. Grover had submitted.
The present bail plea arises from the 2016 Surjagarh arson case, in which several vehicles transporting iron ore from the Surjagarh mines in Gadchiroli district were allegedly set ablaze by persons associated with the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist).
Also read: Bombay High Court grants bail to Surendra Gadling in prison since 2018 in Elgar Parishad case
Mr. Gadling has been lodged in Taloja Central Prison since June 2018 following his arrest in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, in which he has remained incarcerated for nearly seven years without trial. The prosecution alleges that provocative speeches delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave in Pune on December 31, 2017, triggered the violence that erupted near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial the following day.
Mr. Gadling was subsequently arrested in February 2019 in the Surjagarh arson case. On January 31, 2023, the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court rejected his bail plea, observing that the allegations regarding his membership of the banned Maoist organisation appeared prima facie true. He thereafter approached the Supreme Court, which, on October 10, 2023, issued notice on his petition.
Mr. Gadling is now the only one of the 16 accused in the Elgar Parishad case who remains in custody. Jesuit priest Father Stan Swamy, one of the co-accused, died in judicial custody in 2021.
Published - July 21, 2026 04:38 pm IST