CM Arvind Kejriwal plea in Arun Jaitley defamation case rejected

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s request that a defamation case filed by Union finance minister Arun Jaitley be suspended was rejected by the Delhi high court. The court said that the criminal and civil defamation cases were “different in nature.”

In the 30-page order, the court observed that “No illegality or question of sustainability can be made out.” It also said that the Delhi chief minister’s plea was “devoid of merit”.

Coming as a major set back for the AAP supremo and other leaders, the court said there was “no prejudice” on account of a pending civil suit and there was no “double jeopardy” and as such Mr Kejriwal’s plea was “devoid of merit”.

“There is no legal impediment to invoke the civil proceedings for defamation as well as initiating the criminal proceedings for defamation simultaneously and continuation of the same,” Justice P.S. Teji said.

After the order on Wednesday, the trial in criminal defamation proceedings filed by Mr Jaitley against Mr Kejriwal and five other AAP leaders is now set to resume.

On December 21, 2015, Arun Jaitley had filed a criminal defamation case against the Delhi CM and five other AAP leaders — Raghav Chadha, Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh and Deepak Bajpai. If held guilty, an accused faces up to 2 years imprisonment and fine.

Mr Kejriwal had contented that proceedings before the trial court should be stayed since a civil suit was pending before the high court.

Regarding the challenge to the magisterial court’s May 19 order dismissing Mr Kejriwal’s plea to grant stay on proceedings due to pendency of civil suit, the high court said that the trial court order was “free from perversity, impropriety, illegality and non-sustainability”. The AAP leaders had argued that “parallel proceedings” not be held. During the proceedings, senior advocate Ram Jethalani had also argued for “postponement” of the criminal trial till the civil proceedings in the high court were concluded.

“Resultantly, the request of the petitioner (Kejriwal) to adjourn the proceedings before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate is rejected being devoid of merit and the same is culminated into dismissal of the present petition,” the high court said in its 30-page judgement.