Senior advocate Kapil Sibal bats for Kejriwal govt in SC

Congress leader and senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who was once at loggerheads with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, today represented the AAP government in the Supreme Court to argue matters related to control of services and other powers in the national capital.

Kapil Sibal, whose son and senior advocate Amit Sibal had filed a defamation complaint against Kejriwal and other AAP leaders, recently buried the hatchet by taking back the case after they apologised.

Kapil Sibal led the argument for the Delhi government before a bench of justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan in cases that signify the tug of war between the AAP government and the Centre over powers of the lieutenant governor (LG) in the legislative affairs of the Delhi assembly.

Sibal senior had not appeared for the Delhi government during the hearing before the five-judge Constitution bench that had the matter on the Delhi-Centre power row.

In case lodged by Amit Sibal in 2013, it was alleged that Kejriwal, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, expelled AAP leader Prashant Bhushan and now BJP leader Shazia Ilmi, who was then an AAP member, had targeted him and his father Kapil Sibal, the then telecom minister, over the Vodafone tax revision case and had allegedly raised the bogey of conflict of interest.

On March 19, Kejriwal had tendered a written unconditional apology to Amit Sibal, after which he was discharged by a city court in the criminal defamation case.

In his apology letter, the chief minister had said he regretted making the defamatory remarks without any verification and accepted that they were based on "unfounded allegations".

In their identical letters to Amit Sibal, Kejriwal and Sisodia had apologised to him and said, "I have learnt that the allegations I made against you and your father at the press conference were unfounded. I hereby withdraw all my statements and allegations made against you and your father and apologise for the same."