Recently, the Supreme Court imposed a  fine of three lakh rupees to former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt. This penalty comes as a consequence of Bhatt's filing of petitions that accused the presiding judge overseeing the trial in the alleged drug planting case against him of bias and unfairness.

A division bench, consisting of Justices Vikram Nath and Rajesh Bindal, has imposed a cost of one lakh rupees on three petitions submitted by Bhatt. These funds are to be deposited with the Gujarat High Court Advocates Association. The first petition aimed to transfer the trial to the Court of the senior-most Additional Sessions Judge in Banaskantha at Palanpur, alleging partiality on the part of the current trial judge, who holds the position of the third Additional Sessions Judge. The second petition requested the audio-video recording of the trial court proceedings, while the third petition sought to introduce additional evidence in the case.

During the proceedings, Justice Vikram Nath asked, "How many times have you been to the Supreme Court? At least a dozen times?". Justice Nath then pointed out to the order passed by the Supreme Court in February this year which rejected his challenge to the High Court direction to expedite the trial with a cost of Rs.10,000/-

Senior Advocate Devadatt Kamat, appearing for Bhatt, submitted that one application was filed to summon 19 witness, who were part of the Prosecution Witnesses who were later dropped.

"If the prosecution cited these witnesses and dropped them, and I wish to examine them as witnesses, how can it be termed as vexatious or attempt to delay the trial," Kamat asked. He relied on Section 233(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

The bench was however not inclined to entertain the matters and proceeded to dismiss them.