TODAY’S PRITHVIRAJ CAHUHAN

A blind Prithviraj Chauhan shot the arrow at the voice of Mohd. Gauri and killed him!

But the blind Kejri, today’s Prithviraj Cahuhan, doesn’t even need a voice to fire at. He fires the arrow blindly because it is bound to hit a ‘corrupt’ since all except him and his cohorts are corrupt.

And so it is that he faces a Defamation Suit.

Defamation is almost impossible to prove; or, at the very least, very, very, difficult to prove. In seeking legal redress, the victim runs the risk of his reputation being sullied beyond repair. A person without reputation (fame) cannot be defamed: calling a person convicted of rape or murder a rapist or a murderer does not defame him. So the Defamer’s best defence is to prove that the Defamed was indeed a villain.

Arun Jaitly, Sr advocate of the Supreme Court, an eagle eyed lawyer, knows this well. Yet he has sued Kejri and his five cohorts for criminal and civil defamation asking for a jail term and for Rs 10 crores compensation. Jaitly says he will not accept an apology.

Kejri’s allegation against Jaitly is that irregularities were committed in the renovation of Kotla Stadium and in other matters when he was at the helm of DDCA for about 13 years (1999 – 2013). Jaitly’s defence is that he was not involved in day to day running of DDCA.

DDCA supports jaitly saying that “all powers rest with EC and president never had separate powers.” It gave a point by point rebuttal of Kejri’s allegations and said that these were completely baseless and without any substance; that the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) report pointed out only procedural lapses and DDCA paid fine for that; that no criminal complaints were filed during Jaitly’s Presidency; that SFIO report was in 2012 when the Congress was in power.

Jaitly adds: “A stadium [of] a capacity of 42,000 was made for Rs 114 crore. When [Congress] was in power, the renovation of Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium was done at Rs 900 crore. [And] the renovation of Dhyanchand National Stadium — with a capacity of 14,000 — was done at Rs 600 crore. Here, a brand new stadium got made at just Rs 114 crore and they think that this is wrong.”

However, it is more than likely that family and friends were helped - that’s part of Indian culture; that financial bungling, favouritism, and misappropriation of funds – at whatever miniscule scale – occurred. Since it occurred during Jaitly’s watch, he is morally responsible for the lapses.  But his criminal responsibility has to be proved in the court. He is a man of impeccable probity and is wealthy and therefore is unlikely to waver for a few lakh rupees. But all this and much more dirt will be washed in public and Jaitly will not escape unsullied even if he wins the defamation case.

To buttress his case, Kejri has appointed a one man Inquiry Commission under his favourite lawyer, Gopal Subramanium, former Solicitor General of India. The criticism is that Gopal is not a judge. But the SC found him fit to be a SC judge. His appointment was scuttled by the BJP govt and it is argued that this will affect his evaluation of evidence because, after all, he is human.

Gopal said that he will refuse the assignment unless it was constitutional. But the Notification for his appointment has been issued without the LG’s sanction. And that is, prima facie, unconstitutional. Will Gopal accept the appointment?

Does Kejri have the power to appoint a commission of Inquiry into DDCA affairs? DDCA says NO: “Delhi government has no locus standi to investigate the DDCA issue.” Clearly, the Constitutional validity of Kejri’s Notification will be tested in the courts. That will delay the start of the work of the Commission.

In the criminal defamation case filed against him by Gadkari, the Court jailed Kejri for refusing to file the bail bond. He was released 14 days later on filing the bail. The SC has stopped the proceedings in the case while it examines the constitutional validity of criminal defamation.

There is little doubt that in times to come the Jaitly’s Defamation suits and the DDCA issue will see many twists and turns - legal, administrative and political.