Remove video recording of excise case court proceedings from social media: HC to Sunita Kejriwal
New Delhi (PTI): The Delhi High Court on Saturday directed Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's wife Sunita Kejriwal to take down a video recording of court proceedings related to the excise policy case from social media platforms.
In the video, Arvind Kejriwal, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor, is seen addressing a trial court.
A bench of justices Neena Bansal Krishna and Amit Sharma issued notices to six people, including Sunita Kejriwal, and social media intermediaries X (formerly known as Twitter), Meta and YouTube on a petition alleging violation of the video conferencing (VC) rules of the Delhi High Court.
The high court also directed the social media intermediaries to take down similar content if it is brought to their notice that it has been re-posted.
The court passed an ex-parte ad-interim order and listed the matter for further hearing on July 9 while restraining the parties from re-posting the content.
"The order be communicated to them within 48 hours. Service be also effected through ordinary and electronic mode," the bench said and asked the petitioner to serve the unserved respondents.
The high court was hearing the petition filed by lawyer Vaibhav Singh.
In his petition, Singh claimed that when Arvind Kejriwal was produced before a trial court on March 28 after his arrest in the Delhi excise policy case, he chose to address the court in-person, and the video recording of the proceedings was posted on social media platforms which is prohibited under the High Court of Delhi Rules for Video Conferencing for Courts, 2021.
According to the Rules, there shall be no unauthorised recording of the proceedings by any person or entity.
The video was allegedly re-posted by Sunita Kejriwal and the others.
During the hearing, the counsel representing social media platform Meta submitted that if the persons who have posted the content take it down, nothing remains for his client to do.
"However, if they don't take it down we will take it down pursuant to court orders," he said.
To this, the court said whenever it is brought to the notice of social media intermediaries that there is a re-posting of this identical content, they shall take it down.
The petitioner told the court that YouTube had sent an e-mail saying that it had deleted the content on its platform.
In the public interest litigation (PIL), the petitioner sought the formation of an SIT to investigate and register an FIR against the alleged conspiracy of recording and sharing the audio and video of the court proceedings and putting the life of the trial court judge at high risk.
"Several members of the Aam Aadmi Party, including members of various other opposition parties, have intentionally and deliberately and with wilful intention to malign and manipulate the court proceedings done the audio and video recording of the court proceedings and circulated on social media platforms," the plea said.
It also sought a direction to conduct a thorough investigation to identify the individuals responsible for recording and sharing audio and video recordings of the court proceedings.
The plea sought to "punish the alleged contemnor as per the provisions of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, and impose strict penalties on the individuals found guilty of violation of VC Rules 2021 of this Hon'ble court, as per the provisions specified in law".
The petition urged the court to issue appropriate directives to social media platforms to prevent the recurrence of such unauthorised recordings and their subsequent dissemination and impose penalties for non-compliance of directions on any individual or entity.
Arvind Kejriwal was arrested in the money laundering case stemming from the Delhi excise policy 'scam' on March 21 and has been lodged in Tihar jail under in judicial custody.
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Karnataka issues order on internal quota within SC reservation; 56,432 recruitments to proceed
Bengaluru: The Karnataka government on Tuesday issued an order implementing internal reservation within the 15 per cent quota earmarked for Scheduled Castes in appointments and admissions.
As per the order, 5.25 per cent reservation has been allocated to Left-hand communities under Category-A, 5.25 per cent to Right-hand communities under Category-B, and 4.50 per cent to other touchable Scheduled Caste communities under Category-C.
The government said the decision follows the recent Cabinet meeting held in view of the interim order of the High Court. It was decided to temporarily adopt the 50 per cent overall reservation ceiling and continue recruitments subject to the final verdict of the court.
Accordingly, the 15 per cent SC reservation in recruitment and admissions will now be distributed among the three categories in the prescribed ratio.
The order further stated that 20 per cent of posts or seats available under Category-C must be reserved for 59 most backward castes within the Scheduled Castes. If eligible candidates from these 59 castes are not available, the vacancies or seats should be filled by candidates from other communities within Category-C.
For implementing the revised quota in recruitment, authorities have been directed to follow a 400-point roster system. Where fewer than three Scheduled Caste roster points are available in any cadre, the reserved posts should be treated as general SC category posts for appointment purposes.
The government has also directed departments to revise ongoing recruitment processes by incorporating internal reservation. Notifications already issued without such quota distribution are to be withdrawn and fresh revised notifications issued immediately.
The order added that if the court upholds the enhanced 24 per cent reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the additional 6 per cent posts should be treated as backlog vacancies and filled accordingly.
The government has instructed all recruiting authorities to take urgent steps to fill 56,432 posts already cleared by the Finance Department through direct recruitment.
