Union Finance minister Arun Jaitley filed another defamation case of Rs. 10 crores against the current Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on May 22. The case was filed over the use of an “objectionable” word by Kejriwal’s counsel, Ram Jethmalani in Delhi High Court in the previous defamation case filed by Jaitley.
Jaitley has filed a fresh case against Kejriwal after the latter’s lawyer, senior advocate Jethmalani, allegedly abused him during the court proceedings of another defamation case that he filed against the AAP leader and five members of the party, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh, Kumar Vishwas, Raghav Chadha and Deepak Bajpai.
In response to the defamation case, the Delhi High Court issued notices to the Delhi CM. The court pointed out that if such allegations have been made on Kejriwal’s instructions, then there’s “no point in continuing with the cross-examination of Jaitley anymore. Let defendant (Kejriwal) make good his allegations. Let him step into the box”.
Jaitley’s lawyers raised concern in the court that they want a clarification from Kejriwal whether such remarks were made on his directions or by his counsel on his own. Manik Dogra, who filed the defamation case on Jaitley’s behalf, informed the media that Kejriwal had abused Jaitley through his counsel in the open court, which has been recorded on the order sheet as well.
During the case proceedings, Jethmalani said “He (Arun Jaitley) is a crook and I will show this.” When Jaitley objected to this statement, Jethmalani further said that “let the court note that I am doing this with my client's consent.”
In the first defamation suit, the Finance Minister had sought damages worth Rs. 10 crores. The case is the stage of cross-examination where Kejriwal’s lawyers are cross-examining Jaitley’s witnesses.
Pankaj Gupta, the Joint Registrar in his order, has given time till July 26 to Kejriwal to file his response.
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