HC asks Kejriwal to act reasonable

The Delhi high court o n Tuesday said that chief minister Arvind Kejriwal was “not being reasonable” in the civil defamation case against him by Union minister Arun Jaitley, and cautioned his lawyers over their conduct.

“You (Kejriwal) are not being reasonable. Your conduct is not reasonable. It cannot be like this. We cannot have proceedings go on in this manner. Otherwise tomorrow we will have fist-fight in court. The whole system is on the brink of collapse,” justice Manmohan said.

“I am cautioning you. Give good advice,” the judge said to the lawyer representing Kejriwal.

The oral observations by the court came on an application moved by Jaitley to expedite the recording of evidence in an orderly and fair manner in a `10 crore defamation suit filed by him against Kejriwal and five other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders namely Raghav Chadha, Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh and Deepak Bajpai for allegations of corruption made by them against the BJP leader.

When the application came up for hearing, senior advocate Rajiv Nayar, appearing for Jaitley, said the union minister has been compelled to move the plea “as every hearing before the joint registrar cannot prompt a fresh defamation case”.

Advocate Ramesh Singh, appearing for Kejriwal, sought time to file his reply to the application and, thereafter, the court listed the matter for further hearing on July 24.

The application, filed through advocate Manik Dogra, was moved subsequent to the use of an objectionable word against Jaitley by the Delhi chief minister’s lawyer Ram Jethmalani, during the union minister’s cross examination in the suit.