Arvind Kejriwal
So, finally, the Delhi high court ruled in favour of the Lt. Governor of Delhi, Najeeb Jung, and the Central Government, in their turf war with Delhi’s Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal.
The Delhi high court today asked Chief Arvind Kejriwal to explain the meaning of the word “thulla”, which he used during a television debate on policemen.
A Delhi court today dismissed a defamation case filed by a policeman against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for using a derogatory term against the men in khaki.
The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the constitutional validity of India's criminal defamation law that was contested by Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and BJP leader Subramanian Swamy.
The Supreme Court is likely to pronounce on Friday its verdict on a batch of petitions including by Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and BJP leader Subramanian Swamy challenging the constitutional validity of sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code providing for criminal defamation.
A Delhi court on Saturday issued summons to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for allegedly using the word "thulla" - derogatory Delhi slang for cop - to describe policemen.
A court today granted bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and five others in a criminal defamation case filed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
A lower court announced the bail to Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chadha and Deepak Bajpayee.
Kejriwal and the others were summoned in March to appear before the court on 7 April.
Jaitley accused Kejriwal and other AAP leaders of giving “false and defamatory” statements against him in a case related to the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA), thereby harming his reputation.
The AAP leaders had alleged corruption in the DDCA, which Jaitley headed for 13 years until 2013. Jaitley has denied the allegations.
A court has dismissed a criminal complaint against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal alleging he asked voters to take bribes from other parties but vote for his AAP in elections.
Metropolitan Magistrate Babru Bhan dismissed the plea seeking prosecution of Kejriwal, saying that no offence was made out against him.
“The accused (Kejriwal) has not offered any gratification to the voters (to vote) in favour of his party. He has merely stated that allurements are generally offered by some parties, if offered this time, do not refuse the same but vote in favour of his party.
“He himself has not offered any gratification in lieu of casting votes in favour of his party,” magistrate Bhan said in his Monday order.
The complaint was filed by Ikrant Sharma, who alleged that Kejriwal by making such a statement violated the model code of conduct and instigated the public to accept bribes from politicians.
The complaint was filed in February 2015, the month Kejriwal led his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to a sweeping win in the Delhi assembly elections.
Advocate Pradeep Dwivedi, represented by advocate Anupam Dwivedi, has filed a criminal contempt and sedition complaints against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for allegedly using “defamatory and seditious” words against prime minister Narendra Modi, which would spread disharmony,reported Firstpost:
"On 15 December, 2015, the accused posted the remarks on his Twitter account which reads as, ‘Modi is a coward and a psychopath’. The remarks were made against the democratically elected Prime Minister of the largest democracy of the world,” it said.
The complainant alleged that Kejriwal had “intentionally” used defamatory words with a view to spreading a sense of “hatred and contempt” towards the prime minister.
They seek prosecution of Kejriwal from Delhi metropolitan magistrate Jagminder Singh, who posted the matter for 26 February clarification arguments.
Senior counsel and Rajya Sabha parliamentarian Ram Jethmalani in an interview in Scroll talks about why he’s representing Arvind Kejriwal pro bono against Arun Jaitley’s defamation actions ("Kejriwal got in touch with me and I promptly said to him, ‘Yes, I will surely represent you.’"):
Is it unusual for a person to file both civil and criminal defamation cases?
Yes, first of all, I believe his [Jaitley’s] game is that he will try to get an injunction against the repetition of the statements of which he is complaining. For this, he will use the civil suit. He, anyway, has no intention of going ahead with that suit. (Laughs)
I know the tricks of the trade. Jaitley thinks through the criminal case he will strike fear in his opponents. I hope, by now, he has been disillusioned on this count. (Laughs) As it is, in a defamation case, the complainant turns into an accused...
I, personally, think Jaitley has taken a very ill-advised step... He shouldn’t have gone to the court. These are matters you must fight in the court of the people.
I never, never, never advise people to go to court, particularly so when there exist some questionable aspects of their public life. Even Kejriwal might not know about it, but which his lawyer perhaps would know better. (Laughs) That is why it was so ill-advised of Jaitley to have taken the step of going to court. He should have handled it politically. Ultimately, the people of India have to judge you...
Meanwhile, his initial love affair with the current BJP government is well and truly over:
[The government’s inaction in seeking the names of black money holders from Germany] is why from being the greatest supporter of Modi I have now turned into his greatest critic...
I said that this was because I am an educated person who has 75 years of experience as a criminal lawyer, and how it was that Modi made a fool of me. I said that even though I had been expelled from the BJP, I worked for him during the 2014 election campaign.
Delhi Public Prosecutors will likely not give up their 24 December to 1 January vacation on the “last minute” order of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal reported The Indian Express.
Prosecutors in Delhi have protested the directive in a letter to the director of prosecution.
The director of prosecution of Delhi, Pankaj Sanghi had issued the order on 15 December which states: “The honourable chief minister has desired that a training programme/workshop on the functioning and working of all the Prosecuting Officers is likely to be held between 24.12.2015 to 3.1.2016 during the winter vacation of the court.”
The order also warns that action will be taken against defaulters.
However as per the orders of the Delhi high court, 26 to 31 December is the winter vacation for criminal courts while 24 and 25 December are gazetted holidays.
The Delhi Prosecutor’s Welfare Association (DPWA) through their president Gaurav Singh have requested Sanghi to ask the chief minister to change the dates of training program.
In their letter, DPWA quotes the order of the Delhi administrator issued in 1978, which states that the prosecution department in Delhi “will observe holidays as notified by the Honorable High Court,” it was reported.
Delhi’s lawyers on Wednesday wrote to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal requesting him to exempt advocates from the city government’s odd-even vehicle restriction plan.
The coordination committee of all district court bar associations, in its letter to Kejriwal, said that the odd-even traffic restriction plan will severely affect litigants and the public having cases in the different district courts, tribunals, forums and commissions due to non-appearance of lawyers on time.
“The six different courts, various tribunals, judicial forums and commissions are located in different parts of the city far away from one another,” the letter said.
It said the odd-even plan will thus create undue suffering for the common man from the judicial delivery system.
In its bid to battle pollution, the Delhi government decided that private vehicles with odd and even registration numbers will ply on odd and even dates from 1 January.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, accused in a defamation case filed by senior congress leader Kapil Sibal’s son Amit, appeared before a court here on Saturday.
Kejriwal appeared before Metropolitan Magistrate Sunil Kumar Sharma after Amit Sibal’s counsel opposed his application seeking exemption from personal appearance as Kejriwal had to attend the convocation function of St. Stephen’s College.
Sibal’s counsel Mohit Mathur opposed Kejriwal’s plea and said whether a college convocation was more important than attending court proceedings.
Kejriwal’s counsel Rahul Mehra told the court that Kejriwal and Sisodia would appear before it at 12.30 p.m. and after that both marked their presence in the afternoon.
Mathur, however, did not oppose the exemption plea moved by Sisodia.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan and Shazia Ilmi, who has quit the Aam Aadmi Party, accused in the case also appeared before court.
Meanwhile, the court recorded the statement of Amit Sibal.
The case was filed by Amit Sibal after Kejriwal, during a press conference in 2013, alleged conflict of interest over his appearing in the Supreme Court for telecom major Vodafone while his father was the union communication minister.