Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi has withdrawn himself from hearing a plea that has challenged the government’s January 10 appointment of M. Nageshwar Rao as the CBI’s interim director, citing his role as a member of the panel that selects the agency boss.

“I am part of the selection committee…,” Justice Gogoi told senior advocate Dushayant Dave who had appeared for the NGO Common Cause, the petitioner.

“List the matter before a bench without one of us (Ranjan Gogoi, CJI.) The matter be listed before the Court No. 2 on Thursday, i.e. 24th January, 2019,” the bench, which also included newly appointed judge Sanjiv Khanna, said in a terse order.

Justice A.K. Sikri, the court’s second senior-most judge, sits in court No. 2; so the matter will now come up before that bench on Thursday.

But there is a possibility that Justice Sikri too might recuse from the case in the wake of the recent controversy surrounding the January 10 removal of then CBI director Alok Verma.

The three-member panel of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Justice Sikri and Opposition leader Mallikarjun Kharge had arrived at a 2:1 decision to sack Verma, with Kharge dissenting on the ground that the committee had not given the CBI officer an opportunity to rebut the allegations.

The judge was Chief Justice Gogoi’s representative on the January 10 selection panel meeting.

On January 13, Justice Sikri had withdrawn his consent to a post-retirement position in the London-based Commonwealth Secretariat Arbitral Tribunal where the government had decided to nominate him as a member last month.

Justice Sikri is due to retire on March 6 and indications are he may not be inclined to take up the NGO’s plea on Thursday.

The next option then would be court No. 3 headed by Justice S.A. Bobde, the top court’s third senior-most judge and next in line to be the CJI on November 18 this year after Justice Gogoi demits office.