The Delhi High Court on Wednesday dismissed Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's plea seeking details of bank accounts, income and wealth tax returns and other financial records of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw said Mr. Kejriwal’s plea did not have any merit and was a “fishing or roving enquiry”.
Defamation claim
Mr Kejriwal had sought the financial details of Mr. Jaitley to disprove the claim of defamation against him and his party colleagues.
He also wanted to negate the claim made by the Finance Minister that he did not make any financial gains during his tenure as the president of DDCA.
The Chief Minister had also sought the statement of all bank accounts held by Mr. Jaitley directly or through his family members from 1999-2000 to 2014-15.
He has also demanded copies of all accounts held jointly or singly by him and his family members and also copies of the ledgers.
Mr. Jaitley had filed the defamation suit in 2015 seeking ₹10 crore in damages from Mr. Kejriwal, Raghav Chadha, Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh and Deepak Bajpai.
Attack by AAP
The AAP leaders had allegedly attacked Jaitley and his family members in various fora, including social media, over alleged irregularities and financial bungling in DDCA. Mr. Jaitley, in December last year, had appeared before the high court to record his evidence in connection with the defamation case.
Pending case
Besides the civil suit, a criminal defamation case is also pending against Mr. Kejriwal and others. The DDCA had filed the defamation suit against him and former cricketer Kirti Azad for allegedly making defamatory statements regarding its functioning. Meanwhile, the court allowed AAP spokesperson Raghav Chadha’s application for framing of an additional issue, that statements made by him in public fora against a public figure are privileged from defamatory action.
