Contempt case: Delhi HC seeks response from Kejriwal, others
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday sought the stand of AAP leaders Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Durgesh Pathak, Sanjay Singh, Saurabh Bhardwaj and others in a criminal contempt case initiated against them for their “vilifying” social media posts against Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma.
A bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Ravinder Dudeja issued notice to the politicians on the suo motu contempt case initiated against them by Justice Sharma and granted them four-week time to file their response.
“Issue notice. The alleged contemnors will file their response within a period of four weeks from the receipt of notice,” the bench stated, as it listed the case for next hearing on August 4.
The court also said it would appoint an amicus curiae in the case and directed the registry to preserve a copy of the alleged offending publications. Justice Sharma had on May 14 initiated criminal contempt proceedings against Kejriwal, Sisodia and other AAP leaders, including Vinay Mishra, over their “vilifying” social media posts against her in relation to the excise policy case.
The judge also initiated contempt proceedings against ‘X’ user Devesh Vishwakarma.
Justice Sharma had asserted that the former Delhi chief minister “orchestrated a calculated campaign of vilification” against her on social media instead of pursuing his legal remedies and clarified that the CBI’s petition against the discharge of all accused persons would now be taken up by another bench.
The judge took exception to several social media posts by the proposed contemnors that attributed “political allegiance” and “affiliation” to her and allegedly targeted her by posting a misleading “edited” video of a speech she gave at an educational institution in Varanasi.
She also noted the wide circulation of clips from the court proceedings in the case, stating that the proposed contemnors were creating a “parallel narrative”, and that “remaining silent” was not judicial restraint but a “surrender before a powerful litigant”.
On February 27, the trial court discharged Kejriwal, Sisodia and 21 others in the liquor policy case, as it ruled that the case was wholly unable to survive judicial scrutiny and stood discredited in its entirety.
After Justice Sharma dismissed their applications seeking her recusal in the CBI’s petition against their discharge in the case on April 20, Kejriwal, Sisodia and Pathak had written a letter to Justice Sharma, stating they would not appear before her personally or through a lawyer and would follow “Mahatma Gandhi’s path of Satyagraha”.
After Justice Sharma released the CBI’s petition from her court, the case is now before Justice Manoj Jain. Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday listed for hearing on May 25 the CBI’s petition against the trial court order discharging all accused persons in the liquor policy case and asked the agency to inform former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia and former MLA Durgesh Pathak about the change of bench.
“Let them be intimated that the case has been allocated to this court. So if they have to say anything or respond to the present petition. Let them be served. Once everybody is here, we will draw a schedule of hearing,” Justice Manoj Jain said. The CBI’s petition assailing the trial court’s decision was listed before Justice Jain after Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma released it from her court last week.
