Delhi HC grants Kejriwal, AAP leaders 4 weeks to file response in contempt case

The Delhi High Court on Monday granted four weeks to former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and five other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders to file their responses in a criminal contempt case initiated against them by justice Swarana Kanta Sharma over allegedly defamatory social media posts targeting her

The Delhi High Court on Monday granted four weeks to former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and five other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders to file their responses in a criminal contempt case initiated against them by justice Swarana Kanta Sharma over allegedly defamatory social media posts targeting her.

AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal (HT Archive)

A bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Arun Bhardwaj also allowed Kejriwal and the other AAP leaders -- Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, Saurabh Bharadwaj, Vinay Mishra and Durgesh Pathak -- to approach the judicial registrar for copies of documents and other material forming the basis of the contempt proceedings that had not been supplied to them.

The direction came after senior advocate Vikram Chaudhary, appearing for Kejriwal, along with lawyers representing the other AAP leaders, submitted that certain documents had not been provided to the respondents.

“The respondents are permitted to approach the registrar. Let the replies be filed by the respondents in four weeks,” the court said in its order, fixing November 16 as the next date of hearing.

The contempt proceedings followed an unprecedented face-off between justice Sharma and Kejriwal that began on February 27, when a trial court discharged Kejriwal and others in the excise policy case, prompting the CBI to approach the high court. On March 9, Justice Sharma stayed the trial court’s direction for departmental action against a CBI officer and deferred Enforcement Directorate (ED) proceedings.

Kejriwal subsequently sought transfer of the matter from her bench, but the plea was rejected by chief justice DK Upadhyaya on March 13.

On April 5, Kejriwal, Sisodia and others sought Justice Sharma’s recusal, which she dismissed on April 20. On April 27, Kejriwal informed the judge that he would boycott the proceedings. Sisodia and Pathak subsequently wrote similar letters.

On May 5, the court decided to appoint senior advocates as amicus curiae to represent the three leaders, but the matter was deferred three times.

On May 14, Justice Sharma initiated contempt proceedings and recused herself from the matter, stating that the law did not permit a judge who had initiated contempt proceedings over allegedly defamatory, contemptuous and vilifying social media material targeting her to continue hearing the underlying case.

Following the initiation of contempt proceedings, lawyer Ashok Chaitanya also sought contempt action against Kejriwal, Bharadwaj, Gopal Rai and a journalist, alleging that they had run a coordinated campaign targeting Justice Sharma.