New Delhi: BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj Tuesday hailed the Delhi HC judge Swarna Kanta Sharma’s order not to recuse herself from hearing the liquor policy case involving former chief minister and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and others.
Addressing a press conference, Swaraj said the court’s decision reaffirms judicial independence and rejects attempts by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to run a coordinated campaign to build pressure on the court.
Kejriwal is a bully who tried to pressure a female judge. It was not about a judge change but a game change and narrative control by AAP, a drama company, she alleged.
In a sharp attack, the New Delhi MP said, The kind of attack and allegations they made against a woman judge — against her family, her children, against her as a mother — were clearly aimed at pressuring her to recuse herself from the case.
But I want to remind and warn Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party that whenever a woman has been insulted in this country’s history, those responsible — along with their entire support system — have faced destruction, she said.
Therefore, Kejriwal ji, the kind of bullying, politics of fear, and pressure tactics you are engaging in will make you a target of the anger of the nation’s women, Swaraj added.
She further accused the party of being anti-women, saying, The Aam Aadmi Party is the same party that voted against the Women’s Reservation Amendment (Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam), which would have ensured that 33 per cent reservation in state legislative assemblies and Parliament is implemented from 2029 itself.
The remarks came a day after Delhi High Court judge Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma refused to recuse herself from hearing the liquor-policy case as she rejected the pleas of AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and others for her withdrawal.
In the pronouncement that lasted for more than an hour, Justice Sharma said a litigant cannot be allowed to judge a judge without any material, and judges cannot recuse themselves to satisfy a litigant’s unfounded apprehension of bias.
She further remarked that a political leader cannot be allowed to damage an institution without any basis, as a personal attack on a judge is an attack on the judiciary itself, and a politician cannot be permitted to cross the boundary and sit in judgment over the competence of a judge.
Kejriwal had raised several objections against Justice Sharma hearing the CBI’s plea against his discharge in the liquor-policy case, including that she had earlier denied him relief on his petition challenging his arrest and refused to grant relief on the bail pleas of other accused, including Manish Sisodia and K Kavitha.