Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked AAP leaders Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and four others to file their stand on a criminal contempt case initiated against them for alleged “vilifying” social media posts against Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma.
A bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Ravinder Dudeja issued notices to Kejriwal, Sisodia, Durgesh Pathak, Sanjay Singh, Saurabh Bhardwaj and Vinay Mishra in a criminal contempt case initiated against them, asking them to file their responses within four weeks, and listed the matter for further hearing on August 4.
The case stemmed from several social media posts by Kejriwal, Sisodia and the others after they refused to appear before Justice Sharma when she dismissed their recusal application in the Delhi liquor policy case. The high court found those social media posts defamatory, leading to the initiation of contempt proceedings against them.
As Justice Sharma relied on social media reports and other digital content, the high court directed the registry to preserve them and place them on record on the next date
of hearing.
While passing the contempt order on May 14, Justice Sharma listed the matter before another bench along with the CBI’s appeal challenging the trial court’s decision discharging all accused in the liquor policy case.
The CBI appeal was listed before Justice Manoj Jain, who on Tuesday asked the probe agency to inform Kejriwal, Sisodia and Pathak about the change of bench and listed the matter for May 25 for further hearing.