Hyderabad: Justice B Siva Shankar Rao of the High Court at Hyderabad, on Thursday, reserved orders to Monday on the petition filed by TRS MLA Elvis Stephenson in the cash-for-vote scam. The petitioner, in his petition, wanted the judge to recuse himself from hearing the bail petition of Jerusalem Mathaiah, one of the accused in the case.

G Mohan Rao counsel for the petitioner contended that credibility in the functioning of the justice delivery system and the reasonable perception of the affected parties are relevant considerations to ensure the continuance of public confidence in the credibility and impartiality of the judiciary.

When a party to the petition has apprehensions that judgment being likely to be biased, it would be proper for the bench to recuse from the hearing, the counsel added. Senior Counsel Siddhartha Luthra appearing for Mathaiah contended that it was a psychological game played by the petitioner.

He pointed out a recent judgement of the Apex Court saying that psychological offensive and mind games adopted to seek recusal of judges needed to be strongly repulsed and that it was the duty of the court to hear and decide the matter allocated to it as per roaster.