A Division Bench of the Delhi High Court comprising Justice Kailash Gambhir and Justice Sunita Gupta will on Tuesday take up for hearing a petition by Aam Aadmi Party convener Arvind Kejriwal against a lower court order sending him to judicial custody on his refusal to furnish a bond instead of releasing him on an undertaking in a criminal defamation case.
The case has been filed by former BJP chief Nitin Gadkari for allegedly defaming him by including his name in the list of “India’s most corrupt politicians”.
The petition stated that Mr. Kejriwal had been sent to judicial custody on a wrong assumption of the law on release of an accused in a summon case.
While the lower court insisted on furnishing of a bail bond, Mr. Kejriwal offered to give an undertaking to ensure his appearance before the court as and when called. However, Metropolitan Magistrate Gomati Manocha rejected his interpretation of the law and sent him to judicial custody.
The trial court had sent Mr. Kejriwal to judicial custody initially for two days. However, when he refused to budge from his stand on his production, it remanded him in judicial custody for 14 days.
Meanwhile, a public interest litigation has been filed in the High Court seeking a stay on publication and circulation of a letter written by Mr. Kejriwal making his stand known to his supports on his refusal to furnish a bail bond in the case.
Petitioner advocate Vivek Narayan Sharma on Monday mentioned his petition before a Bench for an immediate hearing but it refused to entertain it. It would be listed for hearing on May 28, the Bench said. The petitioner argued that the letter would provoke people not to follow the rule of law.
