Former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and AAP leader Durgesh Pathak have decided to participate in the proceedings in the Delhi tax policy case, which is now being heard by Justice Manoj Jain of the Delhi High Court after Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma recused herself from hearing the case.
Taking into account the latest developments, the matter has now been listed for hearing on July 16.
Justice Manoj Jain observed that the three ‘vakalatnamas’ appeared to have been filed on behalf of the three AAP leaders who were not represented earlier and boycotted the proceedings before Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma. Vakalatnama is a document that allows a lawyer to represent a party before a court.
The court postponed further proceedings due to the absence of lawyers from working in the Supreme Court on that day, as well as to allow the lawyers to attend.
“If they have filed a vakkalatnama, then on the next date we can find out which date can be fixed and draw up a timeline… It appears that some vakkalatnama has been filed,” the judge observed.
The case relates to the review application filed by the CBI challenging the trial court’s February 27 order exempting Kejriwal and other accused in the Delhi excise policy case.
On February 27, the lower court had released Kejriwal, Sisodia and 21 others in the liquor policy case, saying the case could not withstand judicial scrutiny and had lost its entire credibility.
The CBI later approached the Supreme Court. On March 9, a bench of Justice Sharma stayed the trial court’s recommendation seeking administrative action against the investigating officer in the liquor policy case.
While issuing notices to all the 23 accused on the request of the CBI challenging their release, Justice Sharma observed that some of the findings and observations made by the trial court at the charge-framing stage prima facie appear to be incorrect and require further examination.
This is a developing story. More details await.
