Kejriwal fined ?10,000 for not replying in Jaitley case
The Delhi High Court imposed a fine of ?10,000 on CM Arvind Kejriwal for not filing a response in the new ?10-crore defamation suit filed against him by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Jaitley had filed a case after Kejriwal's lawyer Ram Jethmalani called him a 'crook' in court, during the previous case's hearing.
In a major set back for Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, the Delhi High Court has imposed on him a fine of  Rs 10,000 for not filing a response on the fresh Rs 10 crore defamation suit against him by Union minister Arun Jaitley. The joint registrar Pankaj Gupta directed Kejriwal to deposit the cost while granting him two more weeks to file his response. The high court had on May 23 sought the response of Kejriwal on why defamation proceedings should not be initiated against him. OBJECTIONABLE TERMDuring the cross-examination of Jaitley on May 17, Arvind Kejriwal's former counsel Ram Jethmalani had allegedly used a term Jaitley had found objectionable. A day after, another high court judge, who was hearing a connected matter, had termed as scandalous the remarks made by Jethmalani against Jaitley.Terming the word as not only false, baseless, malicious and abusive, but per se defamatory, Jaitley had told the court he was subjected to numerous questions, terminologies/statements that are ex-facie abusive, malicious, offensive, irrelevant and slanderous. At the same time, while hearing Jaitley's another application to expedite the proceedings of the defamation suit, the court directed Kejriwal not to put "scandalous" questions to Jaitley. Holding that the remarks by Jethmalani, who has now quit as Kejriwal's counsel, were indecent, the court sought undertakings from Kejriwal's new counsel, who would cross-examine Jaitley. "I have never seen such scandalous words being used in any suit and it is uncalled for. This is not the way to conduct the cross-examination, they have to control themselves. You have used some words. Do these fall under free speech? Are you aware that these are unparliamentary words?" the judge said. Justice Manmohan said the chief minister should conduct cross-examination of the senior BJP leader in a dignified manner and in accordance with law. The court added that liberty of free expression could not be confused with the license to make unfounded, unwarranted and irresponsible aspersions. Observing that such words were prohibited under the Evidence Act, the court said if there was even an iota of scandalous questions in future cross-examination, it would transfer the case from the joint registrar to a bench of the high court. DEFAMATION SUITThe AAP leaders had accused the BJP leader of corruption as the president of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA), a post he had held from 2000 to 2013. Jaitley, who had rejected all allegations levelled by the AAP leaders in December 2015, filed a civil defamation suit seeking Rs 10 crore in damages from Kejriwal and five other others, claiming they made false and defamatory statements in the case involving DDCA, thereby harming his reputation. The AAP leaders had allegedly attacked Jaitley and some of his family members on social media platforms, over alleged irregularities and financial bungling in the DDCA.