Justice Sanjiv Khanna recuses from hearing Sajjan Kumar's appeal

[File] Congress leader Sajjan Kumar outside the Patiala House Court in New Delhi on December 12 | PTI [File] Congress leader Sajjan Kumar outside the Patiala House Court in New Delhi on December 12 | PTI

Supreme Court judge Justice Sanjiv Khanna on Monday recused himself from hearing the appeal of former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar challenging the Delhi High Court verdict sentencing him to life term in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.

The matter came up for hearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi.

The 73-year-old Kumar had surrendered before a trial court here on December 31, 2018 to serve the sentence in pursuance of the high court's December 17 judgment awarding him life imprisonment for the "remainder of his natural life".

The case in which Kumar was convicted and sentenced relates to the killing of five Sikhs in Delhi Cantonment's Raj Nagar Part-I area of southwest Delhi on November 1-2, 1984 and burning down of a gurudwara in Raj Nagar Part-II.