Justice Katju’s wife invested in funds of Anil’s company

NEW DELHI: Was it a case of mistaken identity that led to recusal of Justice Markandey Katju from deciding a dispute between Mukesh Ambani owned RIL and BPCL over price differences in naptha supplied by the PSU?

Justice Katju, while recusing himself from the case, in which he was heading a Bench had reserved judgment in September , had reasoned that his wife held shares in Reliance Industries. In reality, she did not hold any share in Reliance Industries but had invested Rs 2 lakh in two ���funds��� run by an Anil Ambani group company.

Details of assets, liabilities and investments declared by Justice Katju, which has been put on Supreme Court���s official website, showed that his wife had invested in Reliance Grow-th Fund and Reliance Regular Savings Fund, both of which have no connection with RIL. In fact, both Reliance Growth Fund and Reliance Regular Savings Fund are run by Reliance Capital, a firm owned by the Anil Ambani group.

The disclosure of assets by Justice Katju showed that the judge himself did not have a single share in any of the Reliance companies,either owned by the elder Ambani or the younger one. However, it stated that Justice Katju���s wife had invested Rs 2 lakh in April 2007 in Reliance Growth Fund and Reliance Regular Savings Fund. It came as a surprise to many that Justice Katju, having kept the judgment reserved for two months, would recuse from the Bench as investments by his wife were made more than two years ago.

It is another matter that Justice Katju decided to pull out from the Bench thinking he should not be hearing or deciding any matter relating to the Ambani brothers.