Senior Supreme Court lawyer Ram Jethmalani won’t represent Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the defamation case filed on him by Union Minister Arun Jaitley.
Jethmalani has asked Kejriwal to settle Rs 2 crore due to him as legal fees.
Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday told the Delhi High Court that he never instructed his counsel Jethmalani to use objectionable words against Jaitley during the hearing of the case on May 17.
Moments after Kejriwal’s submission, Jethmalani wrote a letter to the Delhi CM accusing him using even more offensive language against Jaitley during private discussions on the case, reports said.
In his affidavit, Kejriwal said it was “inconceivable that he would even think of instructing the senior counsel to use such objectionable words.”
The CM denied the charge of Jaitley that the questions with derogatory remarks were “clearly designed to insult and/or annoy” him.
Kejriwal said that he has even instructed his counsel on record, Anupam Srivastava, to remind Jethmalani that no such instructions were issued to him in his meeting with him.
Jethmalani, during the May 17 proceedings, had claimed that the words were used by him in pursuance to instructions received from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo.
“That with due respect it is submitted that neither the answering defendant (Kejriwal) nor the counsel briefing the senior counsel (Jethmalani) gave instructions to the senior counsel to use the objectionable words on May 17, 2017,” the affidavit filed before Justice Manmohan said.
The cross-examination of Jaitley by Jethmalani on May 17 had witnessed heated exchanges between them.
Jaitley, who had filed the civil defamation suit claiming Rs 10 crore damages from Kejriwal and five other AAP leaders, had filed another defamation suit of Rs 10 crore against the Chief Minister alone.
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