The Delhi High Court on Friday questioned Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's intention behind filing an appeal against the decision of the single judge to expedite hearing of a civil defamation suit filed by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley against him and five other AAP leaders.
Slamming Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party leader Ashutosh, a division bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C. Hari Shankar said it was hearing for the first time that a party is aggrieved by expeditious trial of a matter.
The division bench reserved the order on Kejriwal and Ashutosh's plea against the single judge order.
On July 26, the single judge had directed the joint registrar to expedite the recording of evidence in the civil defamation suit while disposing off an application filed by Jaitley.
The court's order had come on an application filed by Jaitley to expedite the recording of evidence in an orderly and fair manner in the Rs 10 crore Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) defamation suit against Kejriwal and five other AAP leaders that the Minister filed in 2015.
Jaitley had filed the civil defamation suit against Kejriwal, Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chadha and Deepak Bajpayee, claiming they made "false and defamatory" statements in the case involving the DDCA, thereby harming his reputation.
--IANS
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