A predisposition to decide for or against one party, without proper regard to the true merits of the dispute is bias. There must be reasonable apprehension of that predisposition. The reasonable apprehension must be based on cogent materials.
Supreme Court
Secretary to the Govt, Transport Deptt Madras vs Munuswamy Mudaliar & Ors 1988 AIR 2232
Bias admittedly negates fairness and reasonableness by reason of which arbitrariness and mala fide move creep in.
Supreme Court
State of Punjab vs V.K. Khanna AIR 2001 SC 343
The dictionary meanings of the word ‘bias’ are –
The action of supporting or opposing a particular person or thing in an unfair way, because of allowing personal opinions to influence your judgment.
(Cambridge Dictionary)
Bias is a tendency to prefer one person or thing to another, and to favour that person or thing.
(Collins Dictionary)
A bias is to feel or show a pre-existing inclination or prejudice for or against someone or something.
(Cornell Law School)