PIL In Delhi High Court Seeks Contempt Action Against Arvind Kejriwal, Others Over Circulation Of Recusal Hearing Videos

A PIL has been filed before the Delhi High Court seeking contempt action against AAP Supremo Arvind Kejriwal, other leaders of the party as well as journalist Ravish Kumar for “unauthorizedly” recording and circulating videos of proceedings before Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma on social media.

The plea has been filed by Advocate Vaibhav Singh alleging that the politicians have unauthorizely recorded the court proceedings that happened on April 13 while Kejriwal was appearing in person seeking recusal of Justice Sharma.

Apart from seeking removal of the videos from social media, the plea seeks to restrain the politicians from sharing or posting the court proceedings and to form an SIT to investigate the “alleged conspiracy” hatched by Kejriwal and his party members.

It also seeks a direction on social media platforms to prevent recurrence of such unauthorized recordings and their subsequent dissemination and also to monitor that no such recording of court proceedings be reuploaded.

For context, Singh had earlier filed a complaint on the same issue to the Registrar General on April 15.

In his fresh PIL, he has sought removal of the videos from social media, alleging that Kejriwal and others circulated court proceedings during recusal hearing on April 13 and maligned judiciary's image.

It has been alleged that there was a conspiracy done by Kejriwal and other politicians to mislead the common people and to show the general public that the judiciary is working on the behest of some political parties and also under the pressure of the Central Government.

Singh has requested the Court to setup a detailed inquiry and take appropriate action against all the political leaders for wilfully and deliberately disobeying the Delhi High Court VC Rules.

The plea contends that till date, no appropriate response has been given by any of the social media platforms nor they have removed the unauthorized recordings of the court proceedings.

The plea names the following as respondents: Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, Sanjeev Jha, Punardeep Sawhney, Jarnail Singh, Mukesh Ahlawat, Vinayy Mishra as well as INC's Digvijay Singh and journalist Ravish Kumar.

Other respondents are Delhi High Court seeking, Meta platforms, Google LLC and X Corp.

The matter is likely to be listed tomorrow. As per roster, the case has to be heard by a division bench headed by Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya.

It may be noted that the PIL was filed by Singh on April 15. Yesterday, Justice Sharma, in her detailed ruling, had dismissed the applications filed by Kejriwal and other accused seeking her recusal from hearing the liquor policy case.

Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma observed that merely because her children are central government panel counsel, it cannot be presumed that she carries any bias against Kejriwal.

The judge added that a politician cannot be permitted to judge judicial competence.

Title: VAIBHAV SINGH v. DELHI HIGH COURT & ORS