A bitter legal battle between Arun Jaitley and Arvind Kejriwal over defamation cases in the courts here came to an abrupt end today as the union minister accepted the apology tendered by the Delhi chief minister who had made allegations of financial irregularities in the DDCA during his tenure as its President.
Jaitley had filed a defamation suit in December 2015 in the Delhi High Court claiming Rs 10 crore as damages and a criminal defamation case against Kejriwal and five other AAP leaders in a district court here for their alleged "scandalous" remarks against him in connection with purported financial irregularities in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA).
Besides Kejriwal, the other AAP leaders who faced proceedings in both the courts were Raghav Chadha, Kumar Vishwas, Sanjay Singh, Ashutosh and Deepak Bajpai.
Jaitley had also filed a separate Rs 10 crore civil defamation suit against Kejriwal in May last year after his then senior lawyer, Ram Jethmalani, had allegedly used objectionable words against the BJP leader during his cross-examination in the first suit.
While the high court today closed both the defamation suits against Kejriwal and four AAP leaders after a joint settlement plea was moved before it, a trial court acquitted the CM and others, except rebel AAP leader Kumar Vishwas, in the criminal defamation case.
Proceedings were not dropped against Vishwas as he did not apologise like his leader Kejriwal and the high court asked Jaitley's counsel to inform Vishwas, who was neither present, nor represented by any counsel, during the hearing, about today's order.
It said if nobody appeared for him on the next date of hearing on April 26, the court would proceed against him.
According to the joint application, Kejriwal, Chadha, Singh, Ashutosh and Bajpai have "unequivocally apologised" for their statements against Jaitley in connection with irregularities in DDCA.
Kejriwal also apologised for Jethmalani's use of objectionable words against Jaitley during his cross-examination.
During the day's hearings in the high court, advocate Anupam Srivastava, appearing for Kejriwal, said the matter was settled and Jaitley has accepted the apology tendered by the AAP leader.
Senior advocate Rajiv Nayyar and advocate Manik Dogra, representing Jaitley, also said the dispute was settled between the parties.
While allowing the joint settlement plea, the high court also took on record Kejriwal's April 1 apology letter and said the compromise deed between the parties was found to be lawful.
During the hearing of criminal defamation case in a magisterial court here, Kejriwal and four other AAP leaders were acquitted after their counsel B S Joon and Jaitley's counsel Sidharth Luthra and Manoj Taneja submitted the joint settlement plea before it.
The first joint application filed in the high court regarding the original defamation suit said, "Plaintiff accepts the apology and does not wish to further prosecute the suit (against the five AAP leaders)."
The application said that "each of the accused (Kejriwal, Singh, Raghav Chadha, Ashutosh and Deepak Bajpai) have unequivocally withdrawn all the allegations made by them in print, electronic or social media against the complainant and his family members."
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