The Delhi High Court on Thursday warned Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal against asking any “offensive and scandalous” questions to Union Minister Arun Jaitley in the defamation cases filed by the latter. The court also imposed a fine of ₹10,000 on Mr. Kejriwal for not filing a reply in one of them.
Undertaking sought
The objectionable remarks were made during the cross-examination of Mr. Jaitley by senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, who had represented Mr. Kejriwal.
Calling the remarks indecent, scandalous and abusive, Justice Manmohan sought an undertaking from senior counsel Anoop George Chaudhari, appearing for the Chief Minister, that no objectionable questions would be put to Mr. Jaitley during the cross-examination on August 28.
After Mr. Jethmalani’s objectionable remarks, which he said were as per instructions from Mr. Kejriwal, the Union Minister filed another defamation suit that was listed before Joint Registrar Pankaj Gupta.
The Joint Registrar took strong view of Mr. Kejriwal not filing a reply to the second lawsuit and imposed ₹10,000 as costs on him. The matter has been posted for September 4.
The case before the Joint Registrar had come after a hearing before Justice Manmohan, who said, “I have never seen such scandalous words being used in any suit. This is not the way to conduct cross-examination,” the judge said, asking Mr. Chaudhari to maintain decorum.
Justice Manmohan said the assurance given by the senior counsel for Mr. Kejriwal “is accepted and the chief minister is held bound by the same.” The judge said that if the assurance was breached, the aggrieved party would be given liberty to approach the court. The court also said it was of the view that liberty of free expression could not be confused with the licence to make “unwarranted and irresponsible aspersions”.
