Jan 28, Colombo: Sri Lanka's new Chief Justice Mohan Peiris has recused himself from the bench scheduled to hear a petition filed by a government minister against the contempt of court proceedings on him.

The Chief Justice today said that he would not sit on the bench hearing the petition filed by Minister of Industries and Commerce Rishad Bathiyutheen.

Justices P.A. Ratnayake and Sathyaa Hettige were the other two judges in the tri-member bench that was to take up the Minister's petition.

The hearing was postponed to March 18 in order to relist the bench.

Minister Bathiyutheen filed an appeal before the Supreme Court October last year against the order by the Court of Appeal for him to show-cause why he should not be punished for allegedly threatening the Magistrate of Mannar.

Bathiyutheen was accused of threatening and intimidating the Mannar Magistrate A. Judeson on July 18 over a court ruling against a group of recently resettled Muslim fishermen in the Mannar district of the northwestern region.