Chandigarh, Oct. 10 -- A Punjab and Haryana high court judge on Thursday recused from hearing a clutch of petitions from Haryana Civil Services (HCS) officers on the final judgment day after an e-mail pointed out that the judge in question had once appeared as a lawyer in "connected matters". While recusing from hearing the petitions from eight HCS officers, the bench of justice Tribhuvan Dahiya remanded back the matter to chief justice requesting him to place it before some other bench. The matter was reserved for final order on September 25 after it was heard at least on eight occasions since May when these petitions were filed. As per the order, an e-mail was received from a Bhiwani resident stating that the judge has been a counsel in one of "the connected matters" filed in 2003. Hence, justice Dahiya decided to recuse from hearing the case. In most of these pleas, the HCS officers have challenged challan presented by the state anti-corruption bureau (ACB) on July 4, 2023 in the court of Hisar sessions judge arraigning these eight HCS officers of 2002 batch as accused. They are Veena Hooda, Surender Singh-1, Jagdeep Dhanda, Sarita Malik, Kamlesh Bhadoo, Kuldhir Singh, Vatsal Vashisht and Jag Niwas. They were arraigned in a case pertaining to alleged irregularities and malpractices by the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) in the recruitment process of 2001 HCS and Allied Services (executive branch) examination. A total of 29 persons including six former HPSC functionaries, four allied services officers and nine paper checkers were also arraigned in the charge-sheet. At least 64 HCS officers were selected by the HPSC during the Om Prakash Chautala-led Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) government in 2002. However, in 2002, Congress leader Karan Singh Dalal approached the high court, alleging corruption and nepotism. Following this, the high court had summoned the entire record of the selection and scrutinised it. An SIT report had also affirmed the irregularities. The FIR in the case was registered in October 2005....