A Delhi court on Thursday refused to adjourn the proceedings of the defamation case filed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley against Delhi Chief Minister and five other AAP leaders. However, the court said that it will hear the application on July 16 along with the further hearing of the case.
The plea was filed by Arvind Kejriwal through senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, stating said there are two cases — one civil and the other criminal filed against the AAP leaders on same allegations and one of them should be stayed for some time so that they can approach Delhi High Court to seek relief.
However, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sumit Das refused to postpone the proceedings. "Now to my mind, there are certain averments made in rhe application which warrant a reply before disposal of the same. However, is so far as the petition is concerned, as to stay the proceeding, I may note that this court cannot stay the proceedings on its own, merely on account of pendency of civil suit," the court said.
"In my opinion the civil suit for damages on account of defamation and criminal defamation case both stands on different and can be tried simultaneously and there is no impediment qua proceedings further in the case in hand," the court added.