New Delh: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday adjourned till September 21 the hearing in the suo motu criminal contempt proceedings initiated against AAP National Convenor and former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, ex-Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and other party leaders over alleged attempts to scandalise the judiciary in connection with the excise policy case.
A Division Bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Ravinder Dudeja directed the registry to supply, in digital form, the material forming the basis of the contempt reference to the respondents after senior counsel appearing for Kejriwal and other AAP leaders submitted that they had not received the relevant documents.
The Justice Chawla-led Bench also granted the proposed contemnors four weeks’ time to file their replies in the criminal contempt proceedings.
It recorded that Kejriwal, Sisodia, Durgesh Pathak, Sanjay Singh, Vinay Mishra and Saurabh Bharadwaj had been served with contempt notices and had entered appearance before the court.
However, amicus curiae and senior advocate Rajdipa Behura informed the Delhi High Court that AAP leader Devesh Vishwakarma had not yet been served.
The Justice Chawla-led Bench directed issuance of a fresh notice to Vishwakarma through the concerned Station House Officer (SHO), directing that if he is not available at the given address, the SHO shall ascertain his current residential address and ensure service of notice along with the material relied upon in the contempt proceedings.
The matter has now been listed for further hearing on September 21.
The criminal contempt proceedings stem from an order passed by a single-judge Bench of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma, which had taken exception to an alleged coordinated social media campaign targeting the judiciary following her refusal to recuse from hearing the excise policy case.
Subsequently, a Division Bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Ravinder Dudeja issued notices to Kejriwal, Sisodia, Sanjay Singh and other AAP leaders after recording that the contempt proceedings had been initiated on the basis of Justice Sharma’s May 14 order.
The Delhi High Court had directed the registry to preserve social media posts and other electronic and publication records relied upon by the single-judge Bench and had granted the alleged contemnors four weeks to file their replies.
Justice Sharma had observed that the actions of the proposed contemnors were “calculated to scandalise the Court, lower the authority of the institution of justice, interfere with the administration of justice, and intimidate the independent exercise of judicial functions”.
She had later recused herself from hearing the main excise policy case, following which the CBI’s revision petition challenging the trial court’s order discharging Kejriwal, Sisodia and others in the alleged corruption case linked to the now-scrapped excise policy was assigned to Justice Manoj Jain.
(IANS)
