New Delhi, April 29 -- Delhi High Court judge Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma on Tuesday recused herself from hearing a plea of Congress lawmaker Karti Chidambaram seeking to quash a CBI FIR against him for allegedly helping Diageo Scotland, a UK-based liquor company, regarding a ban on the duty-free sale of its whisky. "List before another bench," the judge said, without specifying the reason for her recusal. Justice Sharma's decision comes at a time when former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia have chosen not to participate in the CBI's appeal against their discharge in the Delhi excise policy case, which is pending before her bench, following her order dismissing their recusal plea on grounds of alleged conflict of interest. In his plea, Karti has alleged that there was a "gross delay" in registration of the "illegal" FIR on January 1, 2025, which was malafide, borne out of "political vendetta and regime revenge". The case stems from a preliminary inquiry registered by CBI in 2018 to probe alleged irregularities in granting FIPB clearance when his father, P Chidambaram, was the finance minister. The case was registered against Katra Holdings, ASCPL, Karti and others. "There is gross delay in registration of the impugned FIR in as much as the allegations pertain to the period of 2004-2010 (as per the FIR) whereas the subject FIR has been registered in 2025, i.e., after 20 years," the plea alleged. HTC...