Judge Recuses Himself After Alleging Defamation by Kejriwal and AAP Leaders

A major development has emerged in the Delhi Liquor Policy case. Delhi High Court judge Justice Swarna Kanta Sharma expressed strong displeasure against AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and senior party leaders Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, Vinay Mishra, and Saurabh Bharadwaj.

On Thursday, the judge initiated suo motu contempt proceedings against them over allegations of a defamatory social media campaign targeting him. At the same time, he announced his decision to recuse himself from hearing the case.Earlier, the trial court had discharged 23 accused persons, including Kejriwal and BRS leader K. Kavitha, in the 2021–22 Delhi Excise Policy case. Challenging this decision, the CBI approached the Delhi High Court. However, Kejriwal and other leaders requested that the matter be transferred from Justice Swarna Kanta Sharma’s bench to another bench.While hearing the matter, Justice Sharma stated that since he had initiated contempt proceedings against Kejriwal, it would not be appropriate for him to continue hearing the same case. “If I continue with the hearing, Kejriwal may feel that the judgment is influenced by personal bias. Therefore, I have decided to transfer the matter to another bench in order to uphold constitutional propriety,” he observed.

The judge also accused the leaders of deliberately editing a video of his speech at a law college and falsely portraying it as if he had spoken at an RSS event. “Kejriwal has launched a malicious propaganda campaign. Editing and posting a judge’s video with false context is a deliberate act intended to ridicule me. The message being sent is that if judges do not act according to the expectations of political forces, they will be publicly humiliated. Such conduct poses a threat to the judiciary,” Justice Sharma remarked.

Referring to a social media post by Vinay Mishra, the judge further stated, “This order is being passed in a court of law, not at the BJP headquarters. Vinay Mishra, I am initiating contempt proceedings against you as well.”