Delhi HC asks police to remove unauthorised Kejriwal hearing videos from social media

The Delhi High Court administration has asked the city police to take steps for removing from social media unauthorised recordings of the court proceedings related to AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal's plea in the liquor policy matter, even as a complaint sought action against the party leaders who shared the clips.

Advocate Vaibhav Singh, while submitting his complaint to the registrar general against Kejriwal and others for unauthorised recording and circulation of the clips, was informed on Wednesday that the high court has already taken note of the videos and directed law enforcement agencies to take steps to take down the content.

Kejriwal had appeared on Monday before Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma and submitted his arguments on his plea for her recusal from hearing the CBI appeal against the trial court order discharging him and other accused in the excise policy case.

Besides Kejriwal, Singh also sought action against AAP leaders Manish Sisodia, Saurabh Bhardwaj, Sanjay Singh, Sanjeev Jha, Mukesh Ahlawat and others, as well as Congress leader Digvijay Singh for sharing the clips of the court proceedings on social media.

Another lawyer also mentioned his petition for an urgent hearing before a bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Anish Dayal regarding the circulation of court videos.

Chief Justice Upadhyaya, however, declined the urgent listing, saying, "You have filed, it will be listed. What is the urgency?"

Vaibhav Singh, in his complaint, said sharing video/audio of judicial proceedings was prohibited under the high court rules and alleged that the politicians' conduct was an act to "create pressure on the judge".

The conduct of the political leaders, the complaint alleged, "reflects some conspiracy to mislead the general public of the country and malign the image of the noble institution".

"The post in regard to this audio/video recording of the Court Proceedings was circulated on X erstwhile Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and various new channels.

"The circumstances in which the audio/video recording of the Court Proceedings was done and shared, Retweeted and posted by various political leaders and the way it went viral smells deep conspiracy by Arvind Kejriwal and various leaders of Aam Admi Party to malign the image of this noble institution and also to mislead the common people of this nation...," the complaint alleged.