Delhi High Court reserves order on CM Arvind Kejriwal plea on Arun Jaitley suit

On Monday, the Delhi high court reserved its order on chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s plea to stay the proceedings before a trial court in a criminal defamation case filed against him and AAP leaders by finance minister Arun Jaitley.

“The judgment is reserved,” Justice P.S. Teji said after the counsel for both the parties concluded their arguments on the plea challenging the trial court’s May 19 order by which it had turned down Mr Kejriwal’s request to adjourn hearing on a criminal defamation case before it, till the high court decided the civil suit before it.

Senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, appearing for Mr Kejriwal, submitted that there were two cases—one civil and the other criminal—filed against AAP leaders on the same allegations and the trial court should have stayed the proceedings in the matter, but it had declined.

“The trial court judge had said that he has no power to stay the proceedings,” Jethmalani said quoting from the lower court’s order and added, “Power to stay can be exercised by postponing the matter.”

Opposing the contention, senior advocates Harish Salve and Siddharth Luthra, representing Jaitley, said that in “today’s world, the words used are more powerful than sword”. “No prejudice would be caused to the AAP leaders if both the civil suit and criminal proceedings go contemporaneously,” Mr Luthra said.