Supreme Court Rejects Prajwal Revanna’s Plea to Shift Trial; Says Allegations of Bias Against Judge “Most Unethical”

The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to entertain a petition filed by former Janata Dal (Secular) MP Prajwal Revanna seeking transfer of two criminal cases from the special MP/MLA court in Bengaluru to another court in the city. Revanna had alleged that the trial judge was biased against him.

A Bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi made it clear that mere observations made by a trial judge cannot form the basis of a bias allegation.

Dismissing the plea at the threshold, the Chief Justice told Revanna’s counsel that the court had “no reason to doubt” the impartiality of the presiding officer.

“The observations of the presiding officer of the court cannot be the ground of bias. We have no reason to doubt that the officer would not be swayed by the fact that t