The Delhi High Court on Wednesday fined Arvind Kejriwal Rs 10,000 after he failed to respond to a second Rs 10-crore defamation suit filed by Union Minister Arun Jaitley against an objectionable word used by the Delhi Chief Minister's lawyer. The order coincided with Ram Jethmalani's declaration that he will not defend Kejriwal any more, saying the AAP chief lied when he said he did not approve of the word "crook" used against Jaitley in open court on May 17.
In a separate hearing, the court also warned Kejriwal against putting "scandalous" questions to Jaitley during his cross-examination in the previous Rs 10-crore slander case brought by the Union Minister against the CM and five other AAP leaders in December 2015. The six had accused the BJP leader of corruption during his tenure as Delhi & District Cricket Association President, a post he held from 2000 to 2013.
The court has asked Kejriwal to deposit the fine imposed by Joint Registrar Pankaj Gupta and file his response in two weeks. The HC had on May 23 sought Kejriwal's response on why defamation proceedings should not be initiated against him in the second case as well. Kejriwal's legal team sought more time to file its response, which was opposed by Jaitley's counsel Manik Dogra on Wednesday.
Justice Manmohan said that the CM should conduct cross-examination of the senior BJP leader in a dignified manner and in accordance with the law. "Dignity has to be maintained as no person can be subjected to scandalous and abusive language in the garb of cross-examination," he said.
"You are using words such as crook. Is it free speech? Are you aware that this is an unparliamentary word?" the judge asked. "The liberty of free speech cannot be used to make unaccounted statements," he said, warning Kejriwal that any further scandalous questions will not be tolerated. The matter will be heard next on August 28.
The court, however, refrained from passing any order against Kejriwal after noting his Monday's submission that he had not instructed senior lawyer Jethmalani to use any objectionable remarks against Jaitley.
In his affidavit, Kejriwal had said it was "inconceivable that he would even think of instructing the senior counsel to use such objectionable words". The affidavit was filed after Jaitley moved an application, requesting the court to expedite the proceedings against Kejriwal.
However, Jethmalani on Wednesday accused the Delhi CM of having used even more derogatory language against Jaitley. "...it's all on record. I feel cheated that now he's denying," Jethmalani said. Earlier, Jethmalani had said that he was ready to fight for free and even supported Kejriwal as "a clean force in comparison to Jaitley".
Kejriwal has also been facing criticism for using public money to pay the fee of Jethmalani, who has now said that the CM can keep his Rs 2-crore bill amount as he "works for free for thousands of people".
In the original case, Jaitley has also sued AAP leaders Raghav Chadha, Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh and Deepak Bajpai.
