In December 2015, Arvind Kejriwal had claimed that CBI had raided his office to scuttle a probe into alleged irregularities in the DDCA under Arun Jaitley. He had then quizzed Arun Jaitley by tweeting “Why is Jaitleyji so scared of DDCA probe? What is his role in DDCA scam? Arun Jaitley decided to not only inform Kejriwal of his role but also to provide him an opportunity, too, to place before the Court any incriminating documents that he (Kejriwal) may have that could prove his (Jaitley’s) role in any corruption during his tenure as President of Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) from 1999 to 2014. Arun Jaitley has filed 2 separate cases of defamation against Arvind Kejriwal, by which either Arvind Kejriwal can prove his charges in a court of law or be prepared to pay the penalty.
During the pendency of the defamation case, the Delhi High Court had ordered Arvind Kejriwal last year to pay cost of Rs 5000 over his delaying tactics in the case. The Court had ordered that Kejriwal deposit the amount in the ‘Army Welfare Fund Battle Casualties’. Earlier, too, Kejriwal had been imposed a cost of Rs 10,000.
Couple of days back, the Delhi High Court directed Kejriwal to finish the cross examination of Arun Jaitley by 12 February. The High Court said that the “sufficient opportunities have been granted to Kejriwal to cross examine Jaitley”. Till now, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has been called on 8 different dates and 250 questions have been put to him. Now, the High Court does not want to entertain the delaying tactics of Arvind Kejriwal and his lawyers and prolong the cross examination.
In more trouble for Arvind Kejriwal, Anoop George Chaudhary, his lawyer in the defamation case filed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, has quit.
Chaudhary cited “bad briefing” as a reason for his quitting.
Chaudhary sent the to Advocate Instructing Counsel, where he wrote: ” I shall no longer be able to appear for Defendant No.1 Arvind Kejriwal and am withdrawing from the case due to the inadequate briefing which resulted in an embarrassing situation before Justice Endlaw on 12th of February.”
Here’s the full text of the letter that the Lawyer sent:
Senior Counsel Anoop George Chaudhari quits as @ArvindKejriwal lawyer in the @arunjaitley defamation case. Blames bad briefing which led to embarrassment before the court during cross examination pic.twitter.com/sdljzm8jOM
— Bar and Bench (@barandbench) February 16, 2018
Arvind Kejriwal is infamous for levelling false and baseless allegations against all and sundry. It was high time that someone called out his bluff on levelling unsubstantiated against public personalities holding responsible positions. By making Kejriwal slog it out in the Courts, Jaitley has ensured that Kejriwal receives a lesson in restraint in exercising restraint and responsibility in political discourse. After Jethmalani left him midstream, Chaudhary quitting is a big blow to the The Delhi Chief Minister who has built his entire political career on slander.
Arun Jaitley was certainly a bad foe to lock horns with. The present Union Finance Minister, was the Additional Solicitor General of India when Arvind Kejriwal passed out from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur in 1989. Jaitley is not just an experienced parliamentarian but prior was a sought-after advocate too. By suing Kejriwal in the Court of Law, Arun Jaitley ensured that the political battle between them would also be fought on the legal front. Here, Jaitley would have a considerable advantage over Arvind Kejriwal. This was not anticipated by Kejriwal when he made the unsubstantiated allegations against Arun Jaitley. In this arena, Jaitley is the master of the game and knows all the tricks of the trade that would be or could be used by Arvind Kejriwal and his team.
