Delhi HC grants Kejriwal, AAP leaders four weeks to reply in contempt case

The Delhi high court on Tuesday granted four weeks to former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders to file their replies in criminal contempt proceedings initiated by justice Swarana Kanta Sharma over alleged defamatory social media posts targeting her

The Delhi high court on Tuesday granted four weeks to former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders to file their replies in criminal contempt proceedings initiated by justice Swarana Kanta Sharma over alleged defamatory social media posts targeting her.

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A bench of justices Navin Chawla and Ravinder Dudeja also directed the high court registry to supply to Kejriwal and the other AAP leaders the material that formed the basis of the contempt proceedings. The respondents include Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, Saurabh Bharadwaj, Vinay Mishra and Durgesh Pathak.

The direction came after Kejriwal’s counsel, Vikram Chaudhary, along with lawyers representing the other AAP leaders, submitted that the material had not yet been supplied to them.

“The registry is directed to supply the same to the respondents. Let replies be filed by the respondents in four weeks,” the court said in its order, while listing the matter for hearing on September 21.

The contempt proceedings stem from an unprecedented face-off between justice Sharma and Kejriwal that began on February 27 after a trial court discharged Kejriwal and others in the excise policy case, prompting the Central Bureau of Investigation (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 proceedings initiated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

On April 5, Kejriwal, Sisodia and others sought justice Sharma’s recusal, which she rejected on April 20. On April 27, Kejriwal informed the judge that he would boycott the proceedings. Sisodia and Pathak later 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 on three occasions.

On May 14, justice Sharma initiated contempt proceedings and recused herself from the matter, observing that the law did not permit a judge who had initiated contempt proceedings over allegedly defamatory, contemptuous and vilifying material posted against the judge on social media in relation to a case to continue hearing that very matter.

Following the initiation of the 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.