Italian Marine Case: The Supreme Court gives three months extension to Massimiliano Latorre for his stay in Italy on health grounds.

Just two days ago, a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu on Monday recused itself from hearing the home stay period extension plea of one of the two Italian marines accused of killing two Indian fishermen, saying it had earlier made adverse remarks against them.

Deciding to entrust adjudication of Massimiliano Latorre's plea to another bench, Justice Dattu cited the bench's December 17 observations while dismissing the two marines' pleas - one for extension of home stay period and the other seeking permission to go home for spending time with family during Christmas - as the ground for recusal.

In the order dismissing the applications, there were no adverse remarks in writing. Yet, the bench decided to adopt the highest standards of fairness - a litigant must not feel the judge is biased against him - and recused from hearing Latorre's fresh application.