Delhi High Court waives Rs 1 lakh cost imposed on lawyer over PIL on video facility for Arvind Kejriwal in jail

The petitioner also prayed for directions to restrain the BJP Delhi president Virendra Sachdeva from organising any protest or making statements relating to Arvind Kejriwal’s removal.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal after being released from Tihar jail earlier this month. (Express file photo by Renuka Puri)

4 min readNew DelhiMay 27, 2024 03:26 PM IST First published on: May 27, 2024 at 03:26 PM IST

The Delhi High Court on Monday waived a Rs. 1 lakh cost it had earlier imposed on a litigant while dismissing his Public Interest Litigation (PIL) plea seeking appropriate arrangements for Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, arrested in connection with the alleged liquor policy scam, to run the government from jail.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora waived the cost while directing the petitioner Shrikant Prasad, an advocate, to carry out community service, “in accordance with the directions of the Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DSLSA)”.

The bench was hearing an application moved by Prasad seeking waiver of cost imposed by the court in its May 8 judgment. Prasad’s counsel submitted his client has realised he had made a mistake in filing the plea and has vowed not to repeat it. He also submitted that the petitioner is a young lawyer, fresh into the litigation practice and is dependent on his parents for most of his needs.

He said the petitioner, a resident of Delhi, was anxiously following the developments around Kejriwal, and thought that the best way would be to approach the high court. The petitioner’s counsel submitted his client accepts that the PIL was “bad in law”.

Taking note of the fact that the petitioner had realised his mistake, the bench waived the cost. However, the bench said that if Prasad files a fresh proceeding in any court, a copy of the May 8 judgment as well as Monday’s order will be annexed with it.

In the PIL, Prasad sought directions to the Delhi government to provide arrangements for “efficient governance of Delhi” by allowing Kejriwal to do “video conferencing interaction” with the Assembly members and Cabinet ministers, subject to any conditions that may be imposed. Prasad also sought directions to the Union Ministry of Information Technology and Broadcasting to restrain the “media channels from creating undue pressure and airing sensational headlines relating to the resignation of the current Chief Minister and imposing President rule in Delhi”.

Prasad also prayed for directions to restrain the BJP Delhi president Virendra Sachdeva from organising any protest or making statements before the public relating to the removal of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Kejriwal from his residence in March in connection with the alleged Delhi liquor policy scam. On May 10, the Supreme Court had granted the CM interim bail till June 1.

In its May 8 judgement, the bench said since Kejriwal had already filed a petition before the Supreme Court challenging his arrest by the ED and the apex court is considering the issue of interim relief, “no orders for allowing the Chief Minister to interact with the Ministers and/or MLAs via video conferencing in public interest petition is called for”.

“This Court is also of the view that it can neither impose censorship by directing media channels not to air their views nor proclaim emergency or martial law by preventing the political rivals of the Chief Minister from organizing any rally or protest or making any statement calling for his resignation,” the HC had then said.

Dismissing the PIL the bench then directed Prasad to deposit costs of Rs. 1 lakh with AIIMS Poor Fund within two weeks from the date of the May 8 judgment.