Delhi HC Gives Kejriwal, Sisodia Four Weeks to Respond in Criminal Contempt Case

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday granted four weeks to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh and several others to file their responses in a criminal contempt case arising from alleged social media posts targeting Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma.

A Division Bench comprising Justices Navin Chawla and Ravinder Dudeja directed the court registry to provide the respondents with the material forming the basis of the contempt proceedings after senior counsel representing Kejriwal and lawyers for the other respondents stated that they had not yet received the relevant documents. The bench ordered that replies be submitted within four weeks.

The court also allowed AAP leader Gopal Rai and journalist Saurav Das four weeks to respond to a separate contempt petition accusing them of participating in an orchestrated social media campaign against Justice Sharma. The matter has been scheduled for hearing on September 21.

The proceedings stem from a suo motu criminal contempt case initiated by Justice Sharma on May 14 against Kejriwal, Sisodia, Singh, and other AAP leaders, including Durgesh Pathak, Saurabh Bharadwaj, and Vinay Mishra, over allegedly "vilifying" posts concerning her handling of the Delhi excise policy case. Similar proceedings were also initiated against X user Devesh Vishwakarma, while advocate Ashok Chaitanya later filed an independent contempt petition.

In her order, Justice Sharma alleged that a "calculated campaign of vilification" had been launched against her instead of legal remedies being pursued. She also objected to social media posts that allegedly attributed political affiliations to her, circulated an edited video of her speech, and promoted clips from court proceedings to create what she described as a "parallel narrative."

The controversy follows the trial court's February 27 order discharging Kejriwal, Sisodia and 21 others in the liquor policy case. After Justice Sharma later declined requests seeking her recusal from hearing the CBI's challenge to that order, the matter was eventually transferred and is now pending before Justice Manoj Jain.