The next hearing of the defamation case filed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will be held at the Patiala House courts. The case has been filed against five members of AAP namely, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh, Kumar Vishwas, Raghav Chadha and Deepak Bajpai apart from Kejriwal. Jaitley's lawyer Siddharth Luthra presented the tweets, Facebook posts and press statements by Kumar Vishwas and Raghav Chaddha, as evidence against the party. The Patiala court will hear the case at 2 pm. The case comes in the wake of the AAP leaders charging the Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA) with widespread financial irregularity while as president of DDCA, Jaitley did not crack down on siphoning of funds.
Jaitley will start pre-Budget consultations with different stakeholders such as industry, trade unions, and economists from Monday. Jaitley, who will be presenting his second full-year Budget in February, will hold pre-Budget discussions with agriculture group and trade unions on Monday, followed by economists and industry on January 6 and the information technology sector the next day. He will seek views of financial sector regulators on January 11, and of social sector, banks and financial institutions on January 12, the finance ministry said.The customary pre-budget consultations are considered important as they help government in formulating policies. Government has also invited suggestions from the public for 2016-17 Budget to make the exercise more broad. The suggestions can be posted on www.mygov.nic.in portal.
