Justice B S Chauhan on Thursday removed himself from case as Reliance Power filed by an appeal. The appeal is to challenge an Allahabad High Court order involving land acquisition for the Dadri mega power plant.

The hearing was adjourned till January 18 by a bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice B S Chauhan. Giving the reason for the adjourned Justice Chauhan said that as a judge of the Allahabad HC he had partly heard the appeal. The appeal is to herd by another bench on January 18.

The counsel of Reliance Power, Mukul Rohatgi and that of UP government Harish Salve said they both have no objection to Justice Chauhan hearing the case. However he declined such a request.

In an earlier case Justice RV Raveendran had rescued himself as his daughter had worked with a lawyers' firm advising RIL as the case was over supply of gas from Krishna-Godavari basin between Mukesh Ambani's RIL and Anil Ambani's RNRL.

Reliance Power raised questions about the HC judgment saying it comes after huge costs have been incurred and most of the land voluntarily transferred by the owners. It said that the HC interfered with the land acquisitions and granted relief for all land owners.

However, only 450 of the 5,827 original land owners had filed the writ petitions as the majority had already accepted the compensation voluntarily.

In the petition reliance power said "Petitioner has already incurred a significant cost on the project undertaking basic engineering, obtained all necessary clearances and approvals, commenced construction of the project on the said land and more than 90% of the original land owners had taken compensation (including all writ petitioners) in the year 2005 under voluntarily signed agreements under UP local laws."