New Delhi: Delhi High Court Judge Justice Tejas Karia on Wednesday recused himself from hearing a PIL seeking contempt action against AAP leaders and others. Arvind Kejriwal And Manish Sisodia for allegedly posting and sharing clips of the court hearing related to the former chief minister’s plea to recuse Justice Swarn Kanta Sharma in the liquor policy case, according to news agency PTI.The PIL, filed by lawyer Vaibhav Singh, was listed before a bench of Chief Justice DK Upadhyay and Justice Karia. The bench directed that the matter be placed before another bench on Thursday.“This matter will not be heard by this bench. List it tomorrow before a bench in which one of us, Justice Tejas Karia, is not a member,” the court said.According to news agency PTI, during the hearing, the petitioner’s counsel requested that the case be transferred to another bench which was already considering a similar issue.Apart from AAP leaders, the High Court administration and social media platforms like Meta Platform, X and Google have also been made parties in the PIL.Justice Karia, before being elevated to the bench, was a partner in a leading law firm and had represented Meta in several cases.Singh, in his plea, argued that unauthorized sharing of court proceedings on social media undermines judicial independence and violates high court rules.The PIL further alleged that several AAP leaders and members of other opposition parties, including Congress leader Digvijay Singh, “deliberately recorded and circulated” videos of Kejriwal’s appearance before Justice Sharma on April 13 with the aim of tarnishing the image of the court.Claiming that Kejriwal and his associates hatched a “conspiracy” and adopted a “dirty strategy” to record the proceedings, the plea sought formation of an SIT to investigate the matter and initiation of contempt proceedings against “all the respondents who uploaded, reposted, forwarded the recording of the court proceedings dated 13.04.2026”.The petition has also demanded removal of the video from social media platforms.Earlier, on April 15, Singh had filed a complaint with the Registrar General of the High Court over alleged unauthorized recording of court proceedings.On Monday, Justice Sharma refused to recuse himself from the liquor policy case, observing that a litigant cannot be allowed to judge a judge without any material and cannot recuse himself on the basis of unfounded fears of bias.