HC seeks stand of Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia in criminal contempt case

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday sought the stand of AAP leaders Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Durgesh Pathak, Sanjay Singh, Saurabh Bhardwaj and others in a criminal contempt case initiated against them for their "vilifying" social media posts against Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma.

A bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Ravinder Dudeja issued notice to the politicians on the suo motu contempt case initiated against them by Justice Sharma and granted them four-week time to file their response.

"Issue notice. The alleged contemnors will file their response within a period of four weeks from the receipt of notice," the bench stated, as it listed the case for next hearing on August 4.

Justice Sharma had on May 14 initiated criminal contempt proceedings against Kejriwal, Sisodia and other AAP leaders over their "vilifying" social media posts against her in relation to the excise policy case.

Justice Sharma had asserted that the former Delhi chief minister "orchestrated a calculated campaign" of vilification against her on social media instead of pursuing his legal remedies and clarified that the CBI's petition against the discharge of all accused persons would now be taken up by another bench.

The judge took exception to several social media posts by the proposed contemnors that attributed "political allegiance" and "affiliation" to her and allegedly targeted her by posting a misleading "edited" video of a speech she gave at an educational institution in Varanasi.

She also noted the wide circulation of clips from the court proceedings in the case, stating that the proposed contemnors were creating a "parallel narrative,"" and that "remaining silent" was not judicial restraint but a "surrender before a powerful litigant." On February 27, the trial court discharged Kejriwal, Sisodia and 21 others in the liquor policy case, as it ruled that the case was wholly unable to survive judicial scrutiny and stood discredited in its entirety.

After Justice Sharma dismissed their applications seeking her recusal in the CBI's petition against their discharge in the case on April 20, Kejriwal, Sisodia and Pathak had written a letter to Justice Sharma, stating they would not appear before her personally or through a lawyer and would follow "Mahatma Gandhi's path of Satyagraha".