The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s wife Sunita to submit a response to a petition against her for allegedly sharing on social media a video clip of the trial court proceedings against her husband in an excise policy case.
Ms. Sunita’s counsel had urged the court to “drop her” from the list of parties in the petition, saying that she had merely “re-tweeted” the recording and was not the “originator” of it.
However, the High Court observed that court proceedings cannot be recorded and shared on the internet and asked the counsel to place her stand in the form of a reply.
“The problem is of anonymity. We will have to deal with the matter. File a reply, whatever it is,” the court said.
On June 15, a vacation Bench of the High Court had ordered that the audio or video of the Chief Minister addressing the trial court be removed from social media platforms.
The court was on Tuesday informed by the parties that the content has been removed from social media pursuant to the direction.
The High Court was hearing a plea by advocate Vaibhav Singh, who claimed that when Mr. Kejriwal was produced before a trial court on March 28 after his arrest in the Delhi excise policy case, he chose to address the court in-person.
Mr. Singh submitted that unauthorised recording of the proceedings by any person or entity is a violation of the Delhi High Court Video Conferencing Rules, 2021.
“It is submitted that several members of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), including members of various other Opposition parties, have intentionally and deliberately with intent to malign and manipulate the court proceedings, have made an audio and video recording of court proceedings, which has been circulated on various social media platforms,” the plea said.
The plea has sought a direction to conduct a thorough investigation to identify the individuals responsible for it. The High Court will hear the case next on October 7.
Published - July 10, 2024 01:26 am IST
