Kejriwal’s court blues continue as Delhi HC to take up plea alleging contempt for playing recording of recusal hearing

The legal challenges for Arvind Kejriwal continue, with the Delhi High Court set to hear a plea seeking contempt of court action against him over the alleged recording and sharing of court proceedings on social media.

The case is expected to come up for hearing on Wednesday before a bench led by Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia.

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The petition, filed by advocate Vaibhav Singh, accuses Kejriwal, several leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party, and journalist Ravish Kumar of publishing videos of court proceedings related to the excise policy case. The videos reportedly show Kejriwal arguing his plea seeking the recusal of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma.

Apart from Kejriwal and Ravish Kumar, the plea also seeks action against Congress leader Digvijay Singh and AAP leaders, including Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, Sanjeev Jha, Purandeep Sawhney, Jarnail Singh, Mukesh Ahlawat, and Vinay Mishra.

Filed as a public interest litigation, the petition has also requested the court to order the removal of these videos from social media platforms.

Earlier, the High Court administration had written to Delhi Police, asking it to take action against the unauthorised recording and circulation of court proceedings. This included viral clips of Kejriwal’s arguments before Justice Sharma.

In his petition, Singh alleged that Kejriwal made “misleading and baseless” submissions in court and accused political leaders of deliberately recording and sharing proceedings to damage the image of the judiciary.

He further claimed that the videos were widely circulated on platforms such as X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and even aired by some news channels. According to the plea, the way the clips were recorded and spread points to a planned attempt to mislead the public and create doubt about the independence of the judiciary.

The court is now expected to examine whether the circulation of such recordings amounts to contempt and if any directions are needed to prevent further spread of the videos.