Jaitley, Jethmalani spar over Kejriwal case in Delhi HC

New Delhi: Heated exchanges were witnessed between Union minister Arun Jaitley and senior advocate Ram Jethmalani in the Delhi high court during the former’s cross-examination in a defamation case against chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

The recording of Mr Jaitley’s statement in a civil defamation suit of Rs 10 crore filed by him against Mr Kejriwal and other AAP functionaries could not take place as the minister objected to the use of a word against him by the senior lawyer representing the Delhi chief minister.

The finance minister, who appeared before joint registrar Deepali Sharma, lost his cool and asked Mr Jethmalani whether the word was used as per instructions from Mr Kejriwal.

“If this is so, I would aggravate the charges against the defendant (Kejriwal),” Mr Jaitley said, adding that there was a limit to personal malice. Senior advocates Rajiv Nayar and Sandeep Sethi, who were representing Mr Jaitley, also said Mr Jethmalani was putting scandalous questions and should restrain himself from asking irrelevant ones “as this matter is Arun Jaitley versus Arvind Kejriwal and not Ram Jethmalani versus Arun Jaitley”.

To this, Mr Jethmalani said he used the word on the instruction of Mr Kejriwal. A group of lawyers, including Mr Jethmalani, who were defending the AAP leaders, also said that Mr Jaitley was not entitled to a claim of `10 crore on account of his alleged defamation.

Mr Jaitley has filed the civil defamation suit seeking `10 crore in damages from Mr Kejriwal and five other AAP leaders —- Raghav Chadha, Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh and Deepak Bajpai — for accusing him of financial irregularities in the DDCA of which he was the president from 2000 to 2013.

The verbal exchange between Mr Jethmalani and Mr Jaitley started when the former asked a question alleging that his article on irregularities in DDCA could not get published in a weekly magazine at the instance of the finance minister.