MillenniumPost
Delhi

Rs 10 crore defamation suit by Jaitley: HC seeks Kejriwal's reply

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday sought the response of Arvind Kejriwal on a fresh Rs 10 crore defamation suit filed by Union Minister Arun Jaitley over the use of an objectionable word by the Chief Minister's lawyer Ram Jethmalani recently.

Joint Registrar Pankaj Gupta issued notice to Kejriwal asking him to respond why the defamation proceedings should not be initiated against him.

The high court's Joint Registrar, who presides over the procedural aspects of a civil suit before it is heard by a court, fixed July 26 as the next date of hearing, by when the Chief Minister has to file his response. Jaitley filed the second defamation suit after Jethmalani allegedly "abused" him in open court during the proceedings of another defamation suit he had filed against the AAP chief and five other party functionaries.

During the cross-examination of the Union Minister on May 17 before Joint Registrar in the Delhi High Court, Jethmalani had used a term Jaitley had found objectionable.

A day after, Justice Manmohan, who was hearing a connected matter, had termed as "scandalous" the remarks made by Jethmalani against Jaitley before the Joint Registrar during the cross-examination.

Terming the word as not only "false, baseless, malicious and abusive, but is per se defamatory", Jaitley, represented by senior advocate Sandeep Sethi, said he was "subjected to numerous questions, terminologies/statements that are ex-facie abusive, malicious, offensive, irrelevant and slanderous".

"Clearly, the defendant (Kejriwal) has brazenly and with a malafide intent to cause further prejudice, damage and loss to the name, reputation and credibility of plaintiff (Jaitley) has deliberately used the terminology against him," the second law suit filed through advocate Manik Dogra said.
Next Story
Share it