Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who has filed a defamation suit against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and five others, on Tuesday opposed in the Delhi High Court the plea of AAP leader who claimed that fresh allegations levelled against him by the complainant should be struck off.
Mr.Jaitley was responding to the application by AAP leader Ashutosh, who alleged that the Union Minister had “exploited the opportunity of filing replication (a plaintiff’s reply to the defendant’s plea) for the purpose of introducing fresh allegations of defamation to make out a fresh case”.
The application was filed in a suit in which Mr.Jaitley has sought Rs.10 crore in damages from Mr.Kejriwal, Raghav Chadha, Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh and Deepak Bajpai for issuing allegedly false and defamatory statements against him and his family in connection with alleged irregularities in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) when he was its president.
Mr.Ashutosh, represented by senior advocate H.S. Phoolka, told Joint Registrar Kovai Venugopal, that additional grounds were not only inconsistent to the pleadings of the original plaint but were also unnecessary, frivolous, scandalous, vexatious and would prejudice, embarrass and delay fair trial.
Senior advocates Rajiv Nayar and Pratibha Maninder Singh, who appeared for Mr.Jaitley, opposed the application contending that the Registrar had no domain to hear it and the same should be transferred to the regular court, which has jurisdiction.
On this, the Joint Registrar also said that he can only hear the application with the consent of both parties.
