Arvind Kejriwal, national coordinator of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), will argue his own case on Thursday in the Delhi High Court in connection with his disqualification application before Justice Swarn Kanta Sharma in the alleged tax policy matter.
The former Delhi Chief Minister, accompanied by his wife, Sunita Kejriwal, arrived at the Delhi High Court on Monday for a hearing in the matter amid speculation that he is pleading his case.
The Delhi High Court has sought the CBI’s response on the application filed by former Prime Minister Arvind Kejriwal seeking disqualification of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma from hearing the agency’s appeal against the lower court’s order relieving him and 22 others in the Delhi excise policy case.
Kejriwal raised concerns of bias on the part of Justice Sharma and sought her disqualification from the case. He had previously submitted a request to the President of the Supreme Court requesting that the case be referred to another judicial body. This request, made on the administrative side, was rejected, saying that the allotment to Justice Sharma was as per the existing list, reports LiveLaw.
This comes after the Delhi High Court on March 16 gave Kejriwal and others more time to respond to a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) application challenging the release of Kejriwal and 22 others in the case. The court had reserved the case for next April 6.
While a bench of Justice Suwarana Kanta Sharma issued notice on Kejriwal’s application, the CBI, represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, maintained that the allegations made in the applications were frivolous, vexatious, contemptuous and baseless and added that the development was of a very serious nature in the capital.
When the court asked if he would plead his own case, Kejriwal replied: “I will defend this application myself,” according to LiveLaw. The court then decided to refer the case to next April 13 at 2:30 p.m.
Kejriwal also informed the Supreme Court that he has withdrawn his order seeking transfer of the matter from the bench of Justice Sharma to another judge before the Supreme Court.
Doubts about an impartial hearing
Earlier on March 11, Kejriwal and others had written to Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya, requesting that the case be transferred from the bench of appointed Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma. They claimed they had a “serious, good faith and reasonable apprehension” that the hearing in the matter would not be impartial or impartial.
During the first hearing on March 9, 2026, the high court issued notice and recorded a prima facie view that the trial court’s order to release Kejriwal and 22 others in the case was “erroneous” without hearing the released accused, they said.
Justice Upadhyaya rejected the transfer request through a letter issued by Supreme Court Registrar Arun Bhardwaj on March 13.
On February 27, the court released Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and 21 others in the case, concluding that it did not hesitate to say that “the CBI materials did not reveal even a prima facie case, let alone the existence of serious suspicion.”
