The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued notices to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Durgesh Pathak, Sanjay Singh, Saurabh Bharadwaj and others on criminal contempt proceedings initiated over an alleged social media campaign targeting Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma.

A Bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Ravinder Dudeja granted the respondents four weeks to file their response to the suo motu contempt case initiated by Justice Sharma. The court listed the matter for next hearing on August 4. Justice Sharma initiated contempt proceedings after she took exception to alleged defamatory and “vilifying” social media posts targeting her in connection with the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) plea challenging a trial court order discharging Mr. Kejriwal and others in the alleged case linked to the Delhi excise policy. The judge pointed to a video circulating online that was “selectively edited to create a misleading narrative”.

‘Unrepresented’

Another Bench of Justice Manoj Jain deferred the hearing on the CBI’s appeal against the trial court verdict till May 25, noting that Mr. Kejriwal, Mr. Sisodia, and Mr. Pathak were unrepresented.

“Let them be informed that the case has been allocated to this court. If they have to say anything or respond to the present petition, let them be served. Once everybody is here, we will draw a schedule of the hearing,” Justice Jain said.

During Tuesday’s hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the CBI, said the trial court’s order of discharge “cannot withstand scrutiny of any court in the eyes of law”. The judge orally observed that since the matter was already in the public domain, the unrepresented respondents would be aware of the change of Bench.