Delhi High Court orders removal of video of Arvind Kejriwal addressing court from social media platforms

The Delhi High Court on Saturday ordered take down of video recordings of court proceedings in which Delh Cheif Minister Arvind Kejriwal addressed the court in person following his arrest in the excise policy case [Vaibhav Singh v Sunita Kejriwal & Ors]..A Division Bench of Justices Neena Bansal Krishna and Amit Sharma further directed the social media companies like X (Twitter), Facebook, Instagram and YouTube to take down identical content if reposted and upon the same being notified by the petitioner to counsel for social media entities.The Bench also issued notice to Arvind Kejriwal's wife Sunita Kejriwal, the social media platforms and other social media handles who had posted the video. .The Court passed the order while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by advocate Vaibhav Singh. Singh had said that Sunita Kejriwal and many other social media handles associated with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had posted the audio/ video of Arvind Kejriwal addressing the Rouse Avenue court.The Delhi Chief Minister had addressed the Court in person when he was produced before Special Judge (PC Act) Kaveri Baweja following his arrest in the case related to Delhi excise policy..Arvind Kejriwal personally argues his case before Delhi Court, says ED running extortion racket.Advocate Vaibhav Singh has sought a probe by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the incident..He argued that after Kejriwal addressed the Rouse Avenue Court on March 28, several social media handles associated with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and other opposition parties made video/ audio recordings of the Court proceedings and posted them on social media platforms.On March 28, Kejriwal was produced before the Court by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the Delhi liquor policy case. Kejriwal addressed the Court in person and said that ED was running an extortion racket for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).According to Singh, soon after the hearing was over, many social media handles started “posting, reposting, forwarding, sharing, resharing” the audio and video recording of the court proceedings..Sunita Kejriwal reposted an audio recording uploaded by an X (Twitter) account named Akshay.Singh argued that recording of court proceedings is prohibited under the “High Court of Delhi Rules for Video Conferencing for Courts 2021” and making these videos viral was an effort to malign the image of judiciary and the judges.He said that posting such videos was part of the conspiracy hatched by Arvind Kejriwal and the AAP.“That the above circumstance smells that this was a preplanned conspiracy to record the audio/ video recording of the court proceedings hatched by Mr. Arvind Kejriwal and his party members. That Mr. Kejriwal never before nor after presented his case in the court which shows that presenting his case on 28.03.2024 was part of some conspiracy to gain public sentiments,” the petitioner submitted.