New Delhi, August 4, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday adjourned hearing in the suo motu criminal contempt proceedings against AAP National Convenor and former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and other party leaders till September 21.
A Division Bench comprising Justice Navin Chawla and Justice Ravinder Dudeja directed the court registry to provide the respondents with digital copies of the material forming the basis of the contempt proceedings after their counsel submitted that the relevant documents had not been supplied.
The Bench also granted the proposed contemnors four weeks to file their replies.
The court recorded that Kejriwal, Sisodia, Durgesh Pathak, Sanjay Singh, Vinay Mishra and Saurabh Bharadwaj had been served with contempt notices and had appeared before the court.
During the hearing, amicus curiae and senior advocate Rajdipa Behura informed the Bench that AAP leader Devesh Vishwakarma had not yet been served with the notice.
The High Court directed that a fresh notice be issued to Vishwakarma through the concerned Station House Officer (SHO). It further directed that if he is not found at the available address, the SHO should ascertain his current residential address and ensure service of the notice along with the material relied upon in the contempt proceedings.
The criminal contempt proceedings arise from an order passed by Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma, who had taken exception to an alleged coordinated social media campaign targeting the judiciary after she declined to recuse herself from hearing matters related to the Delhi excise policy case.
In her order, Justice Sharma had observed that the alleged actions of the proposed contemnors were “calculated to scandalise the Court, lower the authority of the institution of justice, interfere with the administration of justice, and intimidate the independent exercise of judicial functions.”
Subsequently, the Division Bench initiated criminal contempt proceedings on the basis of Justice Sharma’s May 14 order and directed preservation of social media posts and other electronic records relied upon in the matter.
Justice Sharma later recused herself from hearing the main excise policy case, after which the CBI’s revision petition challenging the trial court’s order discharging Kejriwal, Sisodia and others in the alleged corruption case linked to the now-scrapped excise policy was assigned to Justice Manoj Jain.
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