New Delhi: Delhi High Court Tuesday gave four weeks to former CM Arvind Kejriwal and AAP functionaries Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh to respond to a criminal contempt case initiated against them for their “vilifying” social media posts against Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma.The senior counsel for Kejriwal told a bench of justices Navin Chawla and Ravinder Dudeja that he was yet to receive the material that formed the basis of the contempt case.A similar submission was also made by the lawyers appearing for other parties. HC then asked the registry to supply the material to the respondents and gave them four weeks time to respond.In a connected development, HC also gave four weeks to AAP functionary Gopal Rai and journalist Saurav Das – now a member of CJP – to file their replies in a petition seeking contempt action against them for allegedly being part of an “orchestrated social media campaign” against Justice Sharma. The court listed the matter for hearing on Sept 21.On May 19, HC had issued notice to Kejriwal and other politicians on the suo motu contempt case initiated against them by Justice Sharma and had granted them four weeks to file their response.It had then appointed senior advocate Rajdipa Behura as amicus curiae.Justice Sharma had on May 14 initiated criminal contempt proceedings against Kejriwal, Sisodia, Singh and other AAP functionaries, over their “vilifying” social media posts against her in relation to the excise policy case.The judge also initiated contempt proceedings against X user Devesh Vishwakarma. Subsequently, an advocate, Ashok Chaitanya also filed a separate contempt petition.In the contempt order, Justice Sharma had asserted that the former Delhi chief minister “orchestrated a calculated campaign of vilification” against her on social media instead of pursuing his legal remedies.
