This is not the first setback they had, this is amongst many setbacks they've had in this litigation:Sidharth Luthra,Jaitley's legal counsel pic.twitter.com/lNgtGbUfue



— ANI (@ANI_news) November 22, 2016

Defamation case: SC dismisses Kejriwal's plea seeking stay on trial

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to stay criminal defamation proceedings against Arvind Kejriwal lodged by Finance Minister Arun Jaitely.Jaitely's counsel did not have to utter a word during the proceedings as Kejriwal's counsel Ram Jethmalani failed to convince the top court."This is not a case where we should interfere at this stage," the top court told Jethmalani.Jethmalani projected Kejriwal-Jaitley legal battle as David vs Goliath and said the mighty finance minister of the country is against the poor chief minister of a state.But the apex court was not convinced with his arguments.The Delhi High Court had on October 19 dismissed a similar plea by Kejriwal seeking stay of trial court proceedings in the case, saying, there was no "illegality" in continuing it simultaneously with a civil defamation suit in the high court.The high court had said there was "no prejudice" on account of a pending civil suit and there was no "double jeopardy" and as such Kejriwal's plea was "devoid of merit".It had said the criminal and civil defamation cases were "different in nature".In his plea, Kejriwal had contended that there are two cases -- one civil and the other criminal -- filed against AAP leaders on the same allegations and the trial court should have stayed the proceedings in the matter, but it had declined.Besides a civil defamation suit in the high court, Jaitley had also filed a criminal defamation complaint in a lower court alleging Kejriwal and five AAP leaders -- Raghav Chadha, Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh and Deepak Bajpai -- had defamed him in the Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA) controversy.On April 7, the trial court had granted bail to Kejriwal and others in the case after they had appeared before it.Jaitley, in his civil defamation suit in the high court, has sought Rs 10 crore in damages from Kejriwal and the five AAP leaders for issuing allegedly false and defamatory statements against him and his family in connection with alleged irregularities in DDCA when he was its president.The Union finance minister had on December 21, 2015 filed the criminal defamation case against the AAP leaders and sought their prosecution for offences that entail a punishment of up to two years in jail.