NEW DELHI: Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had described Union finance minister Arun Jaitley’s defamation suit against him as “private in character”, according to court records.AAP and Kejriwal have argued that the CM is not fighting a personal legal battle and the defamation case is a fallout of a probe ordered by the Delhi government to clean up corruption in the cricket administration in the city. That’s why, they have argued, the Delhi government should pay the legal fees. But before the Delhi high court last year, the CM had sought to end the criminal defamation complaint filed by Jaitley against him on the ground that it was private in nature.Justice P S Teji, who eventually dismissed Kejriwal’s petition seeking to quash summons issued by a trial court on Jaitley’s criminal defamation complaint, recorded in his October 19 order last year the main grounds cited by the CM. “The present petition has been preferred by the petitioner (Kejriwal) mainly on the ground that the criminal proceedings are ought to be stayed as the civil suit has been filed on the basis of same facts and allegations. Further ground taken is that there are similarities in both the proceedings initiated by the respondent no.1 (Jaitley), such as the facts that the parties are same, events are same, date of filing is same, cause of action is same and both proceedings are private in character,” HC recorded as Kejriwal’s submission.The court dismissed Kejriwal’s plea for staying criminal prosecution and observed: “Though it is correct that the parties in both these cases are same but the fact is that both cases are different in nature. While the civil proceedings have been initiated claiming damages for damaging the reputation of Respondent No.1, the case at hand is criminal defamation. Pendency of both cases cannot be said to be amounting to double jeopardy.”It had clarified that there is no legal impediment to “invoke the civil proceedings for defamation as well as initiating the criminal proceedings for defamation simultaneously and continuation of the same.”A Delhi government spokesperson, however, dismissed the stand taken by Kejriwal in Delhi HC as a “non-issue” and pointed out that till date not a paisa has been paid to senior lawyer Ram Jethmalani He referred to Jaitley’s reply during his cross-examination last month where Jethmalani asked him why the finance minister sued Kejriwal for commenting on the allegations which were originally made by academic Madhu Kishwar who was not sued. Jaitley had responded: “Many people on social media make irresponsible statements about people in public life, but when a CM endorses them, it becomes a serious matter. Even false allegations gain credibility. Repetition of a libellous statement gives me a cause of action against the person, particularly if he has stature, to take action against that person.”The spokesperson said that from this statement of Jaitley, it is very clear that “he filed a defamation case against CM Arvind Kejriwal and not against a person named Arvind Kejriwal.”