Jethmalani’s remarks on Jaitley scandalous, says Delhi HC

New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Thursday termed “scandalous” certain remarks made by Arvind Kejriwal’s lawyer Ram Jethmalani against finance minister Arun Jaitley during his cross examination in a civil defamation suit filed by the Union minister.

Justice Manmohan said if such remarks were made on instructions of Mr Kejriwal, then he should “first step into the box and make good his allegations” before continuing with Mr Jaitley’s cross examination.

“If such allegations have been made on instructions of defendant 1 (Kejriwal), then no point in continuing with cross examination of plaintiff (Jaitley) any more. Let defendant 1 make good his allegations. Let him step into the box,” the judge said.

Mr Jaitley’s senior advocates Rajiv Nayar and Sandeep Sethi had raised the issue before the court saying they want a clarification from Kejriwal whether the remarks were made on his instructions or by Jethmalani on his own.

Mr Nayar said if Mr Kejriwal had instructed the senior lawyer to make the adverse remark, then they would seek additional aggravated damages of `10 crore from him.

If on the other hand, Mr Jethmalani had on his own made the remark, then it would be a violation of the Bar Council of India rules, he said.

The court said that such manner of cross examination cannot be allowed and something has to be done. It directed Jaitley’s lawyers to file an application with regard to the adverse remarks made against him by Mr Jethmalani. “What is to be done when such scandalous remarks are made. It’s unpleasant,” Justice Manmohan said and added that “cross (examination) should be carried out in accordance with law”.

The remarks were made on Wednesday by Mr Jethmalani before joint registrar Deepali Sharma when Mr Jaitley was being cross-examined in the `10-crore civil defamation case filed by him against Mr Kejriwal and five other AAP leaders for accusing him of financial irregularities in the DDCA of which he was the President from 2000 to 2013.

Five AAP leaders — Raghav Chadha, Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh and Deepak Bajpai — along with Kejriwal are also facing a criminal defamation case filed by Jaitley on the same issue. The issue cropped up before Justice Manmohan who was hearing an application moved by Chadha for making amendments in his written submission filed in reply to Jaitley’s plea