Ahmedabad: The Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court on Friday refused to interfere when Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Sanjay Singh approached her as another judge refused to grant them urgent hearing in a criminal defamation case related to their alleged remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's college degree.
Earlier in the day, the AAP leaders' lawyer advocate Aum Kotwal approached Justice J C Doshi of the high court, seeking an urgent hearing on their petitions praying for the quashing of the summons issued by a lower court in the case. Their petitions were listed at the bottom of the cause list and there was no chance they would be heard during the day, the lawyer told Justice Doshi, and also cited the Supreme Court's guidelines about giving priority to matters related to MPs and MLAs.
Kotwal also pointed out that `note no 9' of the High Court's roster rules says that such matters should be given priority. But when Justice Doshi refused to entertain the request, advocate Kotwal approached Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal after the recess. When the chief justice asked him to approach the concerned bench, advocate Kotwal said the matter was not taken up despite requests on the earlier dates, and also on Friday.
"Today was the fifth date but the matter was not heard," he said. To this, the chief justice said, "What can we do?....I can not manage the judicial board of any other bench. There are limitations....I can not help you. You request the concerned bench. This is beyond my jurisdiction. Don't create an embarrassing situation for the chief justice. Sorry." She will set up dedicated benches to hear only quashing matters, just as new benches were created recently to hear bail matters, Justice Agrawal said.
"Let this pressure of bail (matters) be released and then I will create benches for quashing matters as well. So don't worry," she said.
Delhi chief minister Kejriwal and the AAP's Rajya Sabha member Singh have challenged before the high court a September 14 order of the sessions court dismissing their revision applications against the trial court's (metropolitan magistrate) summons in a criminal defamation case filed by Gujarat University against the two and refusing to stay the trial in temporarily.
When the AAP leaders moved the high court against the sessions court's order, Justice Samir Dave refused to grant them a priority hearing.
The Ahmedabad metropolitan magistrate summoned Kejriwal and Singh on April 15 in the defamation case filed by Gujarat University's registrar Piyush Patel.
The complaint was filed over the two AAP leaders' comments after the High Court set aside an order of the Chief Information Commissioner to the varsity to provide them details of prime minister Modi's college degree. The two leaders made defamatory statements at a press conference and also on their Twitter (now X) handles targeting the university, the complainant alleged. Their statements were sarcastic in nature and made intentionally to hurt the prestige of the university, the registrar's complaint said.
