The court noted that the application they filed was also in English.
DISMISSING HIS plea, a Delhi court has imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on AAP leader Ashutosh for “trying to derail proceedings” in a defamation case filed against him by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. The AAP leader had, in his plea, sought re-recording of the senior leader’s statement in Hindi.
The court said the AAP leader moved the application even though he did not have “slight discomfiture in (understanding) English”.
In 2015, Jaitley had filed the criminal defamation case against AAP leaders Ashutosh, Kumar Vishwas, Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chadha, Deepak Bajpai and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for allegedly making false statements of financial irregularities in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) during his tenure as president between 2000-13.
The application — moved by Ashutosh through his lawyer Mehmood Pracha — stated that some of the accused persons do not understand English and are comfortable with Hindi, and “in the interest of justice and for the sake of fair play”, the complainant should be directed to depose in Hindi.
While dismissing Ashutosh’s plea, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Sherawat said that the AAP leader’s application was “an attempt to derail the proceedings of the case and waste precious time of the court”, and that it has been moved with “no serious or real purpose”.
The court also hit out at Pracha, and said, “First, neither the applicant nor his pleader (Pracha) can be said to be having even a slight discomfiture in the English language. The applicant/accused number 2 (Ashutosh) is an author of well-known book in English titled ‘Anna: 13 Days That Awakened India’ and can be seen giving interviews in English… Therefore, the application is being filed to protract the proceedings… and is dismissed with a cost of Rs 10,000”.
The court noted that the application they filed was also in English.