HC to hear on May 7 Govt's contempt plea against Naveen Jindal

Delhi High Court today decided to hear on May 7 the government's plea seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against industrialist Naveen Jindal and one of his former employees who was caught recording court proceedings during a coal block allocation matter relating to his company.
A bench of justices B D Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva while agreeing to hear the matter also demanded an unconditional apology from the employee, Rajesh Sharma, who was a General Manager in Jindal Power Ltd (JPL).
The Coal Ministry in its application, filed through Central Government Standing Counsel Akshay Makhija, has alleged that Sharma was recording the court proceedings as well as "privileged communication" between government officials and lawyers.

The ministry alleged that Sharma was "obviously acting on direct instructions of Naveen Jindal" who was present in court at the time.
The Ministry submitted that Sharma never disclosed the purpose of his visiting the court nor where he worked, despite repeated enquiries from the bench, and instead lied that he was a businessman from Dwarka in south Delhi.
"In addition, he did not have a gate pass and had somehow managed to get inside/enter the court premises without a valid pass," the application said.

Despite these events "unfolding" before Jindal, he chose to remain a "silent spectator", it said.

It alleged that since Jindal chose to remain a silent spectator, it is "ex-facie evident" that Sharma was acting on his instructions.
Sharma was standing directly behind ministry officials and government lawyers who were carrying confidential files to be shown to the court and it is possible that he took pictures or videos of the files, the Ministry claimed.
The incident occurred on March 27 during the hearing of two matters relating to annulment of tender of two Chhattisgarh mines - Gare Palma IV/2 and IV/3 - for which JPL had put in the winning bid.
The bench had expressed concern over the security lapse in the court premises as Sharma was allowed to enter the main building without an entry pass, saying he could have been a "terrorist".