HC terms Jethmalani's remarks against Jaitley 'scandalous'

The Delhi high court on Thursday termed as ‘scandalous’ certain remarks made by Arvind Kejriwal’s lawyer Ram Jethmalani against Arun Jaitley during his cross examination in a civil defamation suit filed by the Union minister.

Justice Manmohan said if such remarks were made on instructions of Kejriwal, then he should ‘first step into the box and make good his allegations’ before continuing with Jaitley’s cross examination.

"If such allegations have been made on instructions of Defendant 1 (Kejriwal), then (there is) no point in continuing with cross examination of plaintiff (Jaitley) any more. Let Defendant 1 make good his allegations. Let him step into the box,” the judge said.

Jaitley’s senior advocates Rajiv Nayar and Sandeep Sethi had raised the issue before the court saying they want a clarification from Kejriwal whether the remarks were made on his instructions or by Jethmalani on his own.

The remarks were made yesterday by Jethmalani before Joint Registrar Deepali Sharma when Jaitley was being cross-examined in the Rs 10 crore civil defamation case filed by him against Kejriwal and five other Aam Aadmi Party leaders for accusing him of financial irregularities in the Delhi & District Cricket Association of which he was the president from 2000 to 2013.

Five AAP leaders -- Raghav Chadha, Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh and Deepak Bajpai -- along with Kejriwal are also facing a criminal defamation case filed by Jaitley on the same issue.

The issue cropped up before Justice Manmohan who was hearing an application moved by Chadha for making amendments in his written submission filed in reply to Jaitley's plea.