Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal faces fresh trouble as the Supreme Court on Friday paved the way for defamation proceedings to resume against him and advocate Prashant Bhushan in a case filed by Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal's son Amit in a Delhi court.
A bench of Justices Hl Dattu and SA Bobde issued notice on Sibal's petition while staying the Delhi HC’s January 16 order. While disallowing the request by Kejriwal and Bhushan to quash the case, the HC had directed the trial judge to consider their petition to be discharged from the case. Till such time this plea was considered, the HC granted them exemption from personal appearance.
Amit Sibal, through senior lawyer Mukul Rohatgi, argued that such a direction could not be passed particularly since this matter was never pleaded or argued for in the petition. The defamation case was moved against the two senior AAP functionaries for alleging at a Press conference in May 2013 that the tax waiver granted by the Telecom Ministry for Vodafone was guided by private interest. They alleged that Amit Sibal was the lawyer of Hutchinson Telecommunications, later taken over by Vodafone, and even appeared for the company in a matter before Delhi High Court. With the apex court's order, the trial court will be free to continue with the case without being bound by the HC direction.