Delhi HC allows Kejriwal additional meetings with lawyers

The Delhi high court allowed Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to have two additional virtual legal meetings with his lawyer in jail in a week, saying that the Aam Aadmi Party chief’s request to discuss the way forward with his counsels regarding the cases pending against him throughout the country could not be termed unreasonable. “However, when balancing the policy with the fundamental rights of the jail inmate, the request of the petitioner for two additional legal meetings with his lawyers through video conferencing, in the given circumstance of huge number of cases pending against him, cannot be termed unreasonable,” the court said in its July 18 order, which was released on Thursday. In view of the foregoing discussion, it is held that in recognition of the fundamental right of fair trial and effective legal representation, the petitioner be granted two additional legal meetings with the counsel through video conferencing in a week, till he is confined to jail.” Kejriwal had approached the high court against a city court’s April 10 and July 1 orders, rejecting his plea seeking additional meetings with his lawyers. Taking note of the fact that the pendency of cases against the CM and his continued custody in the corruption case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the Delhi excise policy case, justice Krishna said that confining the fundamental right of fair trial to a particular case and insisting on independent applications would result in taking a “myopic view.” “To confine this fundamental right to a particular case and to insist on an independent application in each case, is not only taking a myopic view but would result in multiplicity of similar relief being asserted in different cases; in fact it can lead to utter confusion if such relief is considered a pertaining to individual case and not individual person.