FM to be cross- examined before single judge: HC

The Delhi high court on Friday decided to transfer the ongoing cross- examination of Union finance minister Arun Jaitley before the joint registrar to a court in a defamation suit filed by him against AAP chief and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and five other party leaders.

Expressing a view that any matter, including the present one, should be conducted fairly and in time- bound and speedy manner, Justice Manmohan said that the cross examination of the Mr Jaitley be done by a single judge of the high court. He said that now the joint registrar's order directing Mr Kejriwal to conclude Mr Jaitley's cross- examination on February 12 becomes infructuous as now the court will decide the date and the relevancy of questions put to the Union minister. The court has fixed the matter for February 12 before Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw for Mr Jaitley's further cross- examination.

The court agreed to delegate the cross- examination of the BJP leader to the single judge after the counsels for Mr Jaitley and Mr Kejriwal agreed to it. “I agree to transfer this suit for cross- examination before a court. Lets it be practical and allow trial to go on. There are even orders of this court to conduct the matter in a fair, time- bound and speedy manner…. Now let the court decide whether to allow or disallow the questions. Lets put an end to it as it is going in a wrong direction."

Justice Manmohan's direction came during hearing of Mr Kejriwal's appeal against the JR’s February 2 order directing him to conclude the cross- examination on February 12 itself.

The FM was being crossexamined by the CM’s counsel in his 10 crore defamation suit filed in wake of allegations of financial irregularities against him in the DDCA of which he was the president from 1999 to 2013.

The finance minister has filed the defamation suit against the chief minister and AAP leaders Raghav Chadha, Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh and Deepak Bajpai.