File photo of Delhi's former law minister Jitender Tomar.
Former Delhi law minister Jitender Singh Tomar on Wednesday moved the Delhi High Court seeking closure of fake degree case against him on the ground that he was already facing prosecution in a criminal case on the same issue.
The application came up for hearing before Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva, who recused from the matter saying one of the lawyers appearing in the matter is known to him.
The judge has now posted the matter for July 28, before another bench.
The AAP legislator moved an application praying that petition by advocate Santosh Kumar Sharma be closed since the issue was being probed by the police now.
He said that a criminal case has already been registered against him and he was facing prosecution.
The case has been brewing prior to Tomar's election as an MLA, as a writ petition was filed before Delhi High court on February 4 last year, alleging that he had given "false information" in his affidavit while filing his nomination.
In his plea, Mr Sharma has claimed that Mr Tomar had submitted a "fake and bogus" undergraduate degree in science from Avadh University to get enrolled in the Bishwanath Singh Institute of Legal Studies College (BSILS), Munger (Bihar) where he had purportedly studied LLB.
He was enrolled as a lawyer by the Bar Council of Delhi (BCD) on the basis of a law degree from this college.
The 50-year-old lawmaker from Trinagar was arrested on June 9, 2015, following an investigation into a complaint by BCD that he had obtained a fake law degree from Bihar college. Tomar is currently on bail.
A police case was registered against him on June 8, 2015, at Hauz Khas police station and he was booked for alleged offences of cheating, forgery, using forged documents, forgery with intent to cheat and criminal conspiracy.
Interestingly, the BSILS College in its affidavit before Delhi High court had said that Mr Tomar had been a bonafide LLB student though he had completed his LLB in four years and not three years.
In contrast, the Tilka Manjhi University, which is the affiliating university for the Law college, has said that the roll number given by Mr Tomar do not match their records.