Justice Siddharth Mridul told the counsel of AAP leader Raghav Chadha that instead of pursuing with the application, he can amend his reply by way of a written submission during the hearing of the suit in which Jaitley is being cross- examined by noted lawyer Ram Jethmalani on behalf of Kejriwal.
"It appears that insertion of the paragraph not in any manner add to the material facts already stated on behalf of the parties in the pleadings.
To this, the counsel for Chadha submitted that he would take an instruction on this aspect from his client.
The court then listed the matter for hearing on May 18.
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The Finance Minister is likely to appear in court on May 15 for further cross-examination in the matter.
On December 6 last year, Jaitley had appeared in the high court and tendered evidence in support of his suit against Kejriwal, Chadha and other AAP leaders - Kumar Vishwas, Sanjay Singh, Ashutosh and Deepak Bajpai.
On December 6, 2016 the minister had appeared to record his evidence after the high court on July 12, 2016 had framed issues against Kejriwal and others, notwithstanding their claim that they had not made any defamatory statement against him in the DDCA case.
The court had framed issues against all the six AAP leaders and fixed the matter before Joint Registrar to decide whether any defamatory statements were made by them.
In a civil suit, when one party affirms and other party denies a material proposition of fact or law, then only the issues arise.
The Union minister has also filed a criminal defamation complaint in a Delhi court on the same issue. The DDCA too has filed a criminal defamation suit against Kejriwal and suspended BJP MP Kirti Azad.
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