Kejriwal, Somnath Bharti meet Delhi HC CJ

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and law minister Somnath Bharti Wednesday held a "courtesy meeting" with Justice N.V. Ramana, Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, at his residence.

High court sources said the chief justice left for home at around 6 p.m. as he had a meeting with Delhi's CM and law minister at his residence.

The sources said: "It was a formal courtesy meeting which is held every time a new chief minister takes oath. The meeting lasted for about 20 minutes."

They, however, refused to give details of the meeting.

Bharti has already been under fire after he called a meeting of all district judges in Delhi, and Principal Secretary (Law) A.S. Yadav, a district judge on deputation to the Delhi government, even shot off a letter to the Delhi High Court in this regard.

Yadav rejected Bharti's proposal of judges' meeting, expressing his inability to convene a meeting of all Delhi court judges at the state secretariat.

Yadav told the minister that the judiciary is independent of the executive and only the Delhi High Court can summon a meeting of judges.

Yadav had tried to reason with Bharti, himself a trained lawyer, that it was unthinkable for a minister or anyone representing the executive to summon a meeting of the judges.

Lawyers in Delhi also condemned Bharti's move, contending that the judiciary was not under the control of the executive and political authority.