On Friday, the Supreme Court's division bench adjourned the petition filed by Ashish Mishra, son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra, in the Lakhmipur Kheri case, which involves the killing of farmers in October 2021. The case was forwarded to the bench composed of Justice Surya Kant because he was a member of the previous bench that considered Mishra's bail.

"Judicial propriety demands that the matter be placed before the bench with one of the judges who had heard the matter. We direct the Registry that upon taking instruction from the CJI the matter be placed before appropriate bench",

Senior Advocate Ranjit Kumar, who represented Mishra, stated that Mishra had been detained for more than 11 months. He stated that the charge sheet in the case was filed in January 2022. Kumar claimed that Mishra was not at the crime scene and that CCTV footage shows that he was elsewhere, 4 kilometres away, where a wrestling match was taking place. He also claimed that farmers protesting farm laws attacked the convoy of vehicles and that the deaths occurred when the vehicle ran over the protesters after the driver lost control. He refuted the prosecution's claim that Mishra fired at the protesters after becoming enraged and claimed that the dead bodies bore no firearm injuries.

"It is our case when the farmers saw the vehicle and dragged the people out of the car and killed the driver lost control and people were trampled. So far as the case of firing the postmortem does not show anyone being shot at".

On October 3, several farmers were protesting against the visit of Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya to Lakhimpur Kheri district, and four protesting farmers were killed after being mowed down by an SUV that was part of Ashish Mishra's convoy.

In November 2021, the Supreme Court appointed Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain, a former judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, to oversee the investigation into the Lakhimpur Kheri violence.