New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday urged Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma of Delhi High Court to take on record his additional affidavit claiming that she has a “direct conflict of interest” in hearing CBI’s petition against his discharge in the liquor-policy case.The judge asked the HC registry to take the former chief minister’s affidavit on record, but made it clear that she is not “reopening the matter” since the order stood reserved on his recusal plea.Kejriwal appeared before the court virtually through video-conferencing to urge it that his additional affidavit be taken on record, since the registry said it could accept it only on the court’s directive.Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, who represents
Central Bureau of Investigation
(CBI), informed HC that the agency will respond to the affidavit.In his additional affidavit dated April 14, Kejriwal claimed that Justice Sharma’s two children are empanelled central govt lawyers who receive work through the solicitor general.He cited an RTI reply and a social media post that stated “a total of 2,487 cases were marked to the judge’s son in 2023; 1,784 cases in 2024, and 1,633 cases in 2025.”Later in the day, CBI, in its written submissions, termed Kejriwal’s document a “belated attempt to further malign institutions and individuals” and “clearly an afterthought” since the judgment stood reserved in the matter.
The probe agency said Kejriwal’s allegation of bias because the judge’s children are central govt lawyers cannot be a ground for her recusal.“Neither Ishaan Sharma (the son) nor Shambhavi Sharma (the daughter) ever dealt with or even assisted anyone in any of the matters pertaining to the present offence before any court in the past at any stage of proceedings or have been involved in the matter in any capacity whatsoever.
Both are independent practitioners and are not attached to any senior lawyer,” CBI underlined.The agency also cautioned that if Kejriwal’s argument is accepted, “all judges throughout the country will be disqualified from hearing matters pertaining to such govt/s or matters of any political person — small or big — if their relatives are on any panel of central govt or state govts.”CBI said that if one extends Kejriwal’s logic further, “all judges whose relatives are on the panel of either state govts or central govt or any public sector undertaking will be disqualified from hearing cases of the respective state govts, central govts, or concerned PSUs.”Blaming the former chief minister and others seeking Justice Sharma’s recusal for compromising “institutional integrity”, CBI warned that “if such unscrupulous litigants are permitted to embarrass, malign, browbeat and pressurise the judges,” other litigants may do the same.“The modus operandi of making wild allegations and misusing social media can be adopted by any litigant in any part of the country before any court, starting from a trial court to Supreme Court,” the agency pointed out.
