Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who has sued Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a ₹10 crore defamation suit for allegations of financial mismanagement in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA), was on Monday cross-examined by senior lawyer Ram Jethmalani before the Delhi High Court. The BJP leader said he never complained against “political criticism”, but “it was for the first time when personal imputations questioning my integrity were made”.
Mr. Jaitley was cross-examined for over three hours by Mr. Jethmalani, appearing for Mr. Kejriwal, who asked when he felt an irreversible and unquantifiable damage had been caused to his reputation and if the suit had been led by personal feeling about “your own greatness”.
On whether it was his “inner logic” on loss of reputation, the BJP leader said, “A person’s reputation operates in the public space and so does the loss of reputation. In addition, it causes pain and mental distress to the person defamed, which it did in my case.”
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Denies meeting Chetan
In his cross-examination before Joint Registrar Amit Kumar, Mr. Jaitley also denied having ever met IAS officer Chetan Sanghi, who once headed the DDCA probe panel and made him go back on his report indicting him and others in lieu of a central deputation.
When Mr. Jethmalani suggested that Mr. Jaitley and his government had influenced Chetan Sanghi, the BJP leader said it was wrong to suggest the same and also it was wrong to say that he or his government was not happy with the report made by the officer.
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Mr. Jaitley had filed a defamation suit against Mr. Kejriwal for accusing him of a role in financial mismanagement at the DDCA, which he headed for 13 years till 2013.
To a question, Mr. Jaitley said he had heard of media reports about a CBI raid on the office of a bureaucrat (Rajendra Kumar, Principal Secretary to the CM) but added, “It appears that the defendants [Kejriwal and others] made the statement that the BJP was behind this raid as their effort was to deflect the attention from the raid.”
The cross-examination was briefly interrupted with the lawyers for Mr. Kejriwal and the Delhi government objecting to counsel for Mr. Jaitley leading him.
Most of the 50-odd questions put to Mr. Jaitley on Monday revolved around what made him feel that the statement made by the Chief Minister had caused irretrievable damage to his reputation and did he try to contradict the allegations in the public space but failed.
Some of the questions that Mr. Jethmalani posed to the BJP leader were:
Since how long in the politics of this country you have known defendant no. 1 (Kejriwal)
I have known about Defendant no. 1 during the last one decade on account of his political and public activities.
At no time, def no. 1 has made any statement against you prior to the one mentioned in the plaint. What do you have to say?
He could have made political statements critical of me in the past, some of which I remember but not statements relating to imputations of personal integrity against me.
What is the meaning of the word ‘unquantifiable damage’ used by you in the plaint?
I believe that considering my stature, background and reputation, the loss caused to me and my reputation was so enormous that it could be considered unquantifiable.
In other words, it was your own personal feeling about your greatness that it cannot be quantified in fiscal measure. What do you have to say?
My view about my own reputation was based on what my friends, well-wishers and other people both privately and in the media, who had expressed an opinion on this subject.
Court intervenes
Another question pertaining to difference between goodwill and reputation and a suggestion that even a crook enjoys goodwill, was disallowed by the court.