New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Tuesday allowed Arvind Kejriwal to file an additional written statement in the second defamation allegation levelled against him by Union minister Arun Jaitley.
The court was pronouncing its judgment in the plea filed by Kejriwal to strike off the submissions made in Jaitley’s replications. The averments in the replication stated that Jaitley was subjected to questions and terminologies during cross examination that were ex-facie abusive, malicious, offensive, irrelevant and slanderous by Ram Jethmalani, at the behest of Kejriwal.
Anoop George Chaudhary, counsel for Kejriwal, had pleaded that this allegation amounted to addition of a new fact and must be brought to the notice of the court through amendment to the original pleadings, and not through a replication. “This robs the defendant (Kejriwal) of the chance to file a reply,” it was submitted.
“The averments in replication crystallize the plaintiff’s (Jaitley) stand... and are relevant to the issue... they are not inconsistent or at variance with the original pleadings,” justice Manmohan said.
The averments are not “unnecessary, scandalous, frivolous or vexatious”, it was further said.
Jaitley has filed a Rs10 crore defamation suit against Kejriwal, and five other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders, for levelling corruption charges against Jaitley in a case related to financial irregularities in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA). It was during the cross examination of this case that Jaitley was subjected to the alleged “abusive and malacious” questions and terminologies.
