Why did Patna High Court judge recuse one year after reserving order in anticipatory bail plea? Supreme Court

The Supreme Court recently expressed "surprise" over how a Patna High Court judge had not delivered order in an anticipatory bail plea for almost a year before recusing from the case without rendering any decision [Rajanti Devi vs Union of India]..A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma of the top court recorded a submission by the petitioner that Justice Sandeep Kumar of the High Court had reserved the anticipatory bail plea for orders on April 7, 2022.However, no order was delivered for almost a year before Justice Kumar released the matter from his roster on April 4, 2023. Eventually, another judge of the High Court heard the plea and rejected it."We are extremely surprised as to how the order on the petition seeking anticipatory bail could be kept pending for one year," the Supreme Court said in its order dated November 28.The Court, therefore, directed the Registrar General of Patna High Court to get the details of the matter and submit a report to the apex court by January 8, 2024.However, as per the orders available on the Patna High Court website, Justice Kumar released the matter from his roster on April 4 this year after the petitioner's counsel informed him that he (the judge) was earlier a lawyer in one of the bail matters connected to the same money laundering case"In these circumstances, let this case be listed before another Bench after taking due permission from Hon’ble the Chief Justice," Justice Kumar had noted in his order..The developments took place in relation to an anticipatory bail application moved by one Rajanti Devi in a money laundering case dating back to 2017. She is the wife of Sandeep Yadav who is alleged to be a member of the banned outfit CPI (Maoist).The case was registered by the Enforcement Directorate on the basis of a letter sent by Bihar's Economic Offence Unit, informing the central agency that Yadav and others had acquired huge properties in the name of their family members from their criminal activities.After Justice Kumar recused from the matter, it was heard by another single judge, Justice Prabhat Kumar Singh.Justice Singh rejected the plea leading to the appeal before the apex court. Since the top court was not inclined to entertain the appeal when it came up for hearing on November 28, the counsel representing the petitioner chose to withdraw it..The petitioner was represented by Advocates Gaurav Agarwal, Siddhartha Jha, Gautam Jha, Nikhil Singh, and Aakannsha Sharma.[Read Order]