New Delhi: In a fresh twist in the ongoing CBI appeal hearing against the acquittal of all the accused in the excise policy case, Delhi High Court judge Swarn Kanta Sharma initiated criminal contempt proceedings against the former chief minister. Arvind KejriwalAAP officials Manish Sisodia, Durgesh Pathak, Sanjay Singh, Saurabh Bhardwaj and others abstained from hearing the main case.“Can’t surrender to a powerful litigant,” Justice Sharma said while initiating contempt proceedings against Kejriwal, saying he “launched a defamatory campaign” against him on social media instead of challenging the adverse orders against him in the higher court.She said she would now hear only the contempt case and transferred the appeal, so that the “defendants” would not later claim that she was biased against them. The judge said that while the hearing in the excise policy case was going on inside, “a parallel narrative was being constructed outside… and aspersions were being leveled on this court by contemporaries armed with political powers.”

Justice Sharma took exception to social media posts shared by Kejriwal and other AAP office-bearers which ascribed their “political allegiance” and targeted them by posting a misleading “edited” video of a speech delivered by them at an educational institution in Varanasi.Justice Sharma said, “After I refused to withdraw from the case, Arvind Kejriwal tried to destroy my reputation instead of availing legal remedies and this deliberate attempt to undermine the authority of the court under the guise of free speech cannot be allowed.”He said Kejriwal wanted to sow “seeds of distrust”, but warned that “judicial silence cannot afford to threaten judges into silence”.

Gandhiji’s Satyagraha won: Kejriwal

She said she would now hear only the contempt case and transferred the appeal, so that later the “defendants” would not claim that she was biased. The judge said that while the hearing in the excise policy case was going on inside, “a parallel narrative was being constructed outside… and aspersions were being leveled on this court by contemporaries armed with political powers.”Justice Sharma took exception to social media posts shared by Kejriwal and other AAP office-bearers which ascribed their “political allegiance” and targeted them by posting a misleading “edited” video of a speech delivered by them at an educational institution in Varanasi.Justice Sharma said, “After I refused to withdraw from the case, Arvind Kejriwal tried to destroy my reputation instead of availing legal remedies and this deliberate attempt to undermine the authority of the court under the guise of free speech cannot be allowed.”He said Kejriwal wanted to sow “seeds of distrust”, but warned that “judicial silence cannot afford to threaten judges into silence”.Referring to Kejriwal’s conduct, the judge said that hopefully the matter will be put to rest once his plea is decided.Justice Sharma said, “The plaintiff could have gone to the Supreme Court for challenge, but he did not, instead he released a video and repeated the same allegations and grounds which were rejected by this court.” He also referred to Kejriwal’s letter on X where he had announced his decision to boycott the hearing in his court.“The tone, tenor and manner of the criticism were not those of fair criticism. They have launched a campaign and social media campaigns have raised questions about the integrity, impartiality of this court,” the HC said. Detailed copy of the order is awaited. The judge read out parts of his order in a special sitting at around 6.30 pm and lasted for about 1.5 hours.Justice Sharma clarified that she is not recusing herself from the case but is transferring the matter to another bench as she has initiated contempt proceedings. “By selectively editing the letters and videos, the respondents tried to intimidate the court and tried to cast aspersions on my family members by dragging them in,” the judge said. He said they were intended as a “thoughtful insult”.Undeterred by Justice Sharma ordering contempt proceedings against him, the AAP chief lauded his decision to withdraw from the excise case. “Truth has won, Gandhiji’s Satyagraha has won,” Kejriwal said in his first reaction on social media platform X.