The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued notice to former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and other leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party in a criminal contempt case filed by Justice Suwarana Kanta Sharma against them for alleged defamatory social media posts targeting her.
A bench of Justices Naveen Chawla, Ravinder Dudiga Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, Saurabh Bharadwaj and Vinay Mishra directed to file their replies within four weeks and fixed August 4 as the next date for the hearing.
The court said it would appoint an amicus curiae in the matter, and ordered the registry to retain copies of the social media posts and other relevant records and place them before the court. “The single judge in his judgment relied on social media posts and other electronic and publication records and directed the Registry to preserve copies of the same and produce them before this court.”
An unprecedented standoff between Justice Sharma and Kejriwal began after the court dismissed him and others in a tax policy case on February 27, prompting the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to approach the Supreme Court.
The CBI’s appeal against the February 27 order is scheduled to be heard later on Monday.
On March 9, Justice Sharma stayed the trial court’s directions for administrative action against a CBI officer and deferred Enforcement Directorate action. Kejriwal sought to move the matter from her seat. Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya rejected this on March 13.
On April 5, Kejriwal, Sisodia and others requested Justice Sharma’s recusal, which she rejected on April 20. On April 27, Kejriwal informed Justice Sharma that he would boycott the proceedings. Sisodia and Pathak followed suit.
On May 5, the court appointed senior lawyers amicus curiae to represent the three leaders, but the matter was postponed three times. Justice Sharma, on April 14, initiated contempt proceedings and withdrew, saying that the law does not allow a judge who has initiated contempt proceedings in relation to a matter to continue hearing it. She explained that her previous order, issued on April 20, refusing to withdraw from the tax policy case, remains in place.
Justice Sharma said that after she refused to step down, Kejriwal adopted the course of “defamation” and “intimidation”. It noted that instead of challenging the order in the Supreme Court, Kejriwal chose to issue a letter interrupting the proceedings and a video in which, according to the court, he made false allegations against her that were decided in the April 20 judgment.
She said Kejriwal hatched a smear campaign by circulating and criticizing the matter on social media to ridicule the court. She said that his actions aimed to sow distrust among the general public against it, attribute political influence and lack of judicial independence to the court, and undermine its authority.
