Take down recordings of Arvind kejriwal’s court hearings from online sites: HC
The court issued notice to Sunita Kejriwal and six others, and posted the matter for further hearing on July 9 to consider their responses.
The Delhi high court on Saturday directed social media platforms — X (formerly Twitter), Meta, Instagram and YouTube — to remove the video/audio recordings of the court proceedings in which Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal addressed the Rouse Avenue court personally, following his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the Delhi excise policy case in March.
A vacation bench of justices Neena Bansal Krishna and Amit Sharma said, “The social media platforms namely X (formerly Twitter), Meta (formerly Facebook), Instagram and YouTube are hereby directed to remove forthwith the audio/video recording from their respective platforms.” The order was passed on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by advocate Vaibhav Singh.
The plea alleged that the audio recording was posted by a person named Akshay Malhotra on X, which was later reposted by the CM’s wife, Sunita Kejriwal, and three others.
Besides Sunita Kejriwal, the PIL named the social media platforms along with the principal district and sessions judge of central district and five others — Malhotra, Nagrik-India Jeetega, councillor Promila Gupta, vice president of Rajasthan Congress unit Vineeta Jain, and national media in-charge and spokesperson of the OBC department of Indian National Congress Arunesh Kumar Yadav.
The order also directed the social media platforms to ensure that the audio/video recording is not re-uploaded on their platform till further orders. The court issued notice to Sunita Kejriwal and six others, and posted the matter for further hearing on July 9 to consider their responses.
Singh’s plea sought formation of a special investigation team (SIT) and registration of a first information report (FIR) against the alleged conspiracy of recording and sharing the audio and video of the court proceedings and for putting the life of the district judge at high risk.
“Punish the alleged contemnor as per the provisions of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, and impose strict penalties on the individuals found guilty of violation of VC Rules 2021 of this court, as per the provisions specified in law,” Singh further prayed in his petition.
Singh also sought for a direction to the social media platforms to prevent the recurrence of such unauthorised recordings and their subsequent dissemination and impose penalties for non-compliance of directions on any individual or entity.
On March 28, Kejriwal was brought to the Rouse Avenue court where he chose to present his case on his own and narrated the facts of his case to the special judge.
Singh pointed out that several members of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and of various other opposition parties have, with wilful intention to malign and manipulate the court proceedings, made audio and video recording of the court proceedings and circulated it on social media platforms.
“The post regarding this audio/video recording was circulated on X (erstwhile Twitter) with the #MoneyTrailExposedByKejriwal hashtag. The circumstances in which the audio/video recording went viral smell deep conspiracy by the political parties to malign the image of the judiciary and mislead the common people of this nation and also to show the general public that the judiciary is working on the behest of the government and under the pressure of the central government,” his plea said.
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