It also observed that the plea had been filed "with the intention" to protract the hearing, and does disservice to the cause of justice in the long run.
The Delhi High Court on Monday dismissed Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's application that had questioned a judge's order to expedite the hearing of a defamation suit filed by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley against the AAP chief and five other party leaders.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said the appeal against the July 26 order was "misconceived and devoid of merit". They (AAP leaders) should not have filed this," the Bench said in a 33-page order.
The court observed that expedition of trial was the "need of the hour".
It also observed that the plea had been filed "with the intention" to protract the hearing, and does disservice to the cause of justice in the long run. The court said that it had not come across any earlier case in which such grievance had been voiced
"We confess, at the outset, that we are completely baffled as to how and why, the appellant can claim to be aggrieved by order... Vehement and vociferous arguments advanced by (Kejriwal's) senior counsel have unfortunately failed entirely in clearing the air. The haze continues, if anything, thicker than ever".
Last month, the court had fined Kejriwal Rs 10,000 after he failed to respond to a second Rs 10-crore defamation suit filed by Jaitley against an objectionable word used by the CM's lawyer. The order coincided with Ram Jethmalani's declaration that he will not defend Kejriwal any more, saying the AAP chief lied when he said he did not approve of the word "crook" used against Jaitley in open court on May 17.
In a separate hearing, the court had also warned Kejriwal against putting "scandalous" questions to Jaitley during his cross-examination in the previous Rs 10-crore slander case brought by the Union Minister against the CM and five other AAP leaders in December 2015. The six had accused the BJP leader of corruption during his tenure as Delhi & District Cricket Association President, a post he held from 2000 to 2013.
In the original case, Jaitley has also sued AAP leaders Raghav Chadha, Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh and Deepak Bajpai.
Meanwhile, on Monday, during the cross-examination of Jaitley, Kejriwal's counsel said that the present suit was filed to settle political scores.
However, the Union Minister denied the suggestion and said that he chose to file the case because of the personal attack by Kejriwal and others on him and his family.
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