By IANS
Lucknow/New Delhi : The instance of a court sitting at odd hours may be extraordinary but not unprecedented, said senior lawyers reacting to the move of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court that held its sitting at 3 a.m. Tuesday to stay Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's plan to demolish a sports complex in Lucknow.
Former additional solicitor general K.K. Sud recalled that once a Supreme Court bench had sat well beyond 9 p.m. to consider the bail application of an accused in a cheating case involving Lakhubhai Pathak.
The case, registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation on the complaint of expatriate Indian Pathak, also involved former prime minister Narasimha Rao along with self-professed godman Chandraswami and his aide K.L. Verma, also known as Mamajee.
Sud said that in 1996 then chief justice A.M. Ahmadi had constituted a special bench comprising himself and the next senior most judge of the apex court, Justice J.S Verma, to hear the bail plea of K.L. Verma, who faced an arrest warrant.
The bench eventually granted bail to Verma well past 9 or 10 p.m., said Sud.
In another case, Allahabad High Court Judge Jagdish Bhalla had heard a matter related to Reliance Energy in Lucknow well past 11 p.m., said senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan.
In one case, the apex court had held its sitting after 9 p.m. to consider the bail application of a late industrialist, he added.
Senior Judge Pradeep Kant of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court Tuesday stayed the eviction of people staying in Lucknow's sprawling Ambedkar Sports Complex and stopped all demolition activity during the sitting held at his residence at 3 a.m.
The judge, who constituted a special bench comprising himself and Justice D.P. Singh, later heard the matter in detail at 12 noon.