Plea in Delhi HC seeks action against Kejriwal for uploading videos of proceedings

A plea has been filed in Delhi High Court against AAP leader Kejriwal for contempt over videos of court proceedings in the excise policy case.

New Delhi

Filed by advocate Vaibhav Singh, the petition pertains to videos of Kejriwal arguing his plea seeking justice Sharma’s recusal, which were subsequently circulated on social media. (Representative photo)

A practising advocatehas filed a plea in the Delhi High Court seeking contempt action against Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal and several party leaders for allegedly publishing videos of court proceedings presided over by justice Swarana Kanta Sharma in the excise policy case.

Filed by advocate Vaibhav Singh, the petition pertains to videos of Kejriwal arguing his plea seeking justice Sharma’s recusal, which were subsequently circulated on social media. The plea, which also sought directions for removing these videos, is likely to be listed for hearing on Wednesday.

To be sure, the plea has been filed even as the Delhi High Court last week directed the Delhi Police to take down from social media platforms video recordings showing Kejriwal arguing his application seeking recusal of justice Swarana Kanta Sharma from hearing the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI’s) appeal against the trial court’s discharge order in the Delhi excise policy case.

Besides Kejriwal and Ravish Kumar, action has been sought against Congress leader Digvijay Singh, AAP’s Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, Sanjeev Jha, Jarnail Singh, Mukesh Ahlawat and Vinay Mishra.

On February 27, the trial court discharged Kejriwal, Sisodia and 21 others, holding that the CBI’s material did not disclose even a prima facie case. The agency challenged this in the high court, calling the findings “inherently wrong” and compiled ignoring key evidence.

On March 9, justice Sharma’s bench stayed the trial court’s direction for departmental action against the CBI officer, terming the remarks “prima facie foundationally misconceived”, and deferred ED proceedings pending the appeal.

Following this, Kejriwal filed a letter before chief justice DK Upadhyaya to transfer the appeal from justice Sharma’s bench, but this was rejected on March 13.

Following this, Kejriwal, along with AAP leader Manish Sisodia and four others, filed an application seeking justice Sharma’s recusal.

Kejriwal appeared in court on April 6, when notice was issued, and again on April 13, argued his application for over an hour—videos of which went viral on social media platforms.

On Monday, justice Sharma dismissed the recusal applications.