Delhi HC to hear contempt case against Kejriwal, others on Nov 16
The Delhi High Court on Monday listed for hearing on November 16 its criminal contempt case against AAP leaders Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh and others over “vilifying” social media posts against Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma.
A bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Arun Bhardwaj granted time to Kejriwal and others to file their replies in the matter. Kejriwal’s senior counsel submitted that he was yet to receive the entire material forming the basis of the contempt case.
The bench asked the registry to supply the material which was stated to be “incomplete”, and said, “reply, if any, to be filed in four weeks.”
The court also listed on November 16 a separate contempt petition by lawyer Ashok Chaitanya against Kejriwal and others, including AAP leader Gopal Rai and journalist Saurav Das, for allegedly being part of an “orchestrated social media campaign” against Justice Sharma. On May 19, the court had issued notice to Kejriwal and other politicians on the suo motu contempt case initiated against them by Justice Sharma and had granted them four weeks to file their response.
It had then appointed senior advocate Rajdipa Behura as amicus curiae.
Justice Sharma had, on May 14, initiated criminal contempt proceedings against Kejriwal, Sisodia, Singh and other AAP leaders, including Durgesh Pathak, Saurabh Bharadwaj and 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.
