Delhi High Court today dismissed the plea of an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader opposing fresh allegations made by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his reply to a civil defamation case filed by him against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other AAP members.
A bench of justices Pradeep Nandrajog and Mukta Gupta turned down AAP leader Ashutosh’s appeal observing that the nature of allegation referred to in replication (a plaintiff’s rejoinder to the defendant’s response) is virtually the re-publication of what is said in the main plaint.
“It is actually a case of re-publication of facts mentioned in the main plaint and not additional grounds,” the bench observed.
“The appeal is dismissed,” the court said, adding that it, however, needed to give certain clarifications to some of the findings of the single judge bench order, as it “prima facie appears to be contrary to the law”.
“We will give the detailed order tomorrow,” it said.
The AAP leader has challenged a single judge’s April 29 order by which Arun Jaitley’s replication to the replies of Arvind Kejriwal, Ashutosh and four others, who are party in the civil defamation suit, was allowed and in which the BJP leader has allegedly made a fresh allegation.
The single judge had sought further response from the AAP leaders to Jaitley’s rejoinder.
The single judge order had come on the AAP leader’s plea for striking off the purported new allegations levelled by Jaitley in his replication.
Ashutosh, represented by senior advocate H S Phoolka and advocate Peeyoosh Kalra, has contended that by granting him an opportunity to respond to the replication of Jaitley, the single judge has “tangentially acknowledged” that the allegations which had been objected to had been introduced for the first time by the BJP leader in his replication.