Delhi HC asks Kejriwal not to put scandalous questions to Jaitley

The Delhi High Court today asked Arvind Kejriwal not to put "scandalous" questions to Arun Jaitley during cross-examination in a defamation suit filed by the Union minister against the chief minister and five other AAP leaders.

Holding that the remarks by senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, who had earlier appeared for the chief minister, were "indecent, scandalous and abusive", Justice Manmohan also 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," the court said.

"You have used some words...Do these fall under free speech? Are you aware that these are unparliamentary words?" the judge said, asking Kejriwal's counsel senior advocate Anoop George Chaudhari to maintain decorum.

"No person can be subjected to such indecent, offensive, scandalous, abusive language in the garb of cross- examination," the judge said.

He said that the statement and the assurance given by the senior counsel for Kejriwal "is accepted by this court and the chief minister is held bound by the same."
Justice Manmohan said that if the assurance furnished was breached, the aggrieved party would be given liberty to approach the court.

The court also said it was of the view that liberty of free expression could not be confused with the licence 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.

During the proceedings, Chaudhari said, "No scandalous questions would be put at all and the questions would be in the ambit of the Evidence Act only."

Chaudhari submitted that Kejriwal has already filed his response that he had never instructed Jethmalani to use any scandalous or abusive word against the Union minister.

The court took notice of Chaudhari's statement and observed, "You (Kejriwal) are disowning him (Jethmalani), but your counsel made the remarks."

"All of you will have to help in the conduct of the cross-examination of the Union minister in a dignified manner," it said, adding that the problem was that because of the personalities involved, it was answerable to the public.

"We have to deal with the public. If we cannot control the constitutional authorities like you, the public will come and say you allow them to make such statements. We have to curb it with a heavy hand," it said.

It, however, refrained from passing any order against Kejriwal after noting his earlier submission that he had not instructed Jethmalani to use any objectionable remark against Jaitley.

Senior counsel Rajiv Nayar, Sandeep Sethi and Manik Dogra, appearing for Jaitley, insisted on an affidavit from Jethmalani, saying one of them was "lying or making a wrong statement".

"My client (Jaitley) was insulted (during cross- examination), now both of them deny it. In every hearing would I be subjected to humiliation? There has to be some mechanism," said Nayar, asking that action be taken by the Bar Council of India (BCI) against Jethmalani as Kejriwal has filed an affidavit saying he did not ask him to use objectionable words against Jaitley.

The court, however, was of the view that it would not interfere as Jaitley has already initiated a second defamation suit on this issue.

It deferred the cross-examination of Jaitley from July 28 to August 28 as Kejriwal's counsel sought time to go through the file which he received recently.

It also said that on the day of the cross-examination, only the counsel connected to the case would be allowed to enter the joint registrar's room.

The court also directed the joint registrar to expedite the recording of evidence in the civil defamation suit and disposed of the application filed by Jaitley in this regard.

Jaitley had filed an application to expedite the recording of evidence in an orderly and fair manner in the first Rs 10-crore defamation suit against Kejriwal and the five AAP leaders for allegations of corruption made by them against him.

The application for expeditious hearing said that "numerous irrelevant and scandalous questions have been asked during the cross-examination" of the Union minister and that "abusive and defamatory statements have been made" on the instruction of Kejriwal.

Kejriwal had on July 24 told the high court that there was no instruction from him to Jethmalani to use objectionable remarks against Jaitley and that he had written a letter to the senior lawyer to refute his claim that objectionable words were used in the proceedings before the joint registrar on May 17 as per his instruction.

The cross-examination of Jaitley by Jethmalani on May 17 had witnessed heated exchanges between them.

Jaitley has filed another Rs 10-crore defamation suit only against the chief minister
In the first defamation case, besides Kejriwal, the five other defendents were AAP leaders Raghav Chadha, Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh and Deepak Bajpai.

They 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 denied all the allegations levelled by the AAP leaders in December 2015, had claimed that they had made "false and defamatory" statements in the case involving the DDCA, thereby harming his reputation.

The AAP leaders had allegedly attacked Jaitley and his family members in various fora including social media over the alleged irregularities and financial bungling in the DDCA.