The Delhi High Court on Saturday issued notice to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s wife Sunita Kejriwal,  and social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube, to delete posts and/or reposts, of a video of the AAP leader addressing the court on March 28. The high court was hearing a petition moved by Vaibhav Singh, an advocate, which sought the formation of an SIT to investigate and register an FIR against the “alleged conspiracy of recording and sharing the audio and video” of the court proceedings and “putting the life” of the trial court judge at “risk”.

In the video, Arvind Kejriwal, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor, is seen addressing a trial court. In an impassioned speech, Kejriwal addressed the court directly, and accused the Enforcement Directorate of trying “to crush” his party. He pointed out - as the AAP had, and continues to do so - that no ‘bribes’ allegedly received by his party had been recovered.

A bench of justices Neena Bansal Krishna and Amit Sharma issued notices to six people, including Sunita Kejriwal, and social media intermediaries X (formerly known as Twitter), Meta and YouTube on a petition alleging violation of the video conferencing (VC) rules of the Delhi High Court.

“Prima facie it is observed that the court proceeding recording is violative of Rule 3(vi) of Delhi High Court Video Conferencing Rules, 2021 and cannot be permitted to remain in public domain,” the bench said in its 6-page order.

The West Delhi BJP MP Kamaljeet Sehrawat said that making a political statement in court on March 28 and recording it was a premeditated conspiracy by the Aam Aadmi Party, an attack on the court system. “The entire AAP is nurtured by Marxist ideology and such people neither respect the court nor the administration, which is why there is corruption and anarchy everywhere in the Delhi government,” she stated.

The high court directed the social media intermediaries to forthwith take down the audio or video recording from their respective platforms.  During the hearing, the bench asked the respondents, including the six individuals, to take down the content from social media platforms.

However, the order uploaded on the court website said, “The social media platforms namely X (formerly ‘Twitter’), Meta (formerly ‘Facebook’), Instagram and YouTube are hereby directed to remove forthwith the audio/ video recording from their respective platforms”.

The court also mentioned the list of URLs to be removed and said it should be ensured that the audio/ video is not re-uploaded on their platforms till further orders. The court passed an ex-parte ad-interim order and listed the matter for further hearing on July 9.”Notice of the petition be issued to other respondent no.1 to 7, to be served through ordinary post and electronic mode, returnable for the next date of hearing. The order be communicated within 48 hours to the respondent (s),” the bench said.

In his petition, Singh claimed that when Arvind Kejriwal was produced before a trial court on March 28 after his arrest in the Delhi excise policy case, he chose to address the court in-person, and the video recording of the proceedings was posted on social media platforms which is prohibited under the High Court of Delhi Rules for Video Conferencing for Courts, 2021.

According to the Rules, there shall be no unauthorised recording of the proceedings by any person or entity. The video was allegedly re-posted by Sunita Kejriwal and the others.