In a striking development at the Delhi High Court, a contempt case has been registered against seven prominent leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party, including former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, in proceedings directly linked to a recently delivered judgment in a Central Bureau of Investigation matter. The Court is now scrutinizing whether social media activity and public statements made by these leaders crossed a line that no litigant or public figure may cross: conduct that undermines the authority and dignity of the judiciary.
The controversy began with a judgment dated 14 May 2026, delivered by a learned Single Judge of the Delhi High Court in Central Bureau of Investigation vs. Kuldeep Singh and Others. In arriving at its findings, the Single Judge placed specific reliance on a body of material comprising social media posts, electronic records, and publication records, content that has now become the evidentiary foundation of the present contempt action.
It is this very material, preserved on the directions of the Court itself, that triggered the registration of the contempt case. The alleged contemnors, Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Durgesh Pathak, Sanjay Singh (known on X as @SanjayAzadSin), Devesh Vishwakarma (@devesh_aap), Vinayy Mishra (@vinayymishraap), and Saurabh Bhardwaj, are understood to have made public statements and social media posts that the Court has found prima facie worthy of examination under the law of contempt.
The Division Bench wasted no time in signalling the seriousness with which it regards the matter. Notices have been issued to all seven alleged contemnors, returnable on 4 August 2026, with a direction to file their responses within four weeks of receipt. Crucially, the Court directed the Registry to preserve copies of the social media posts and electronic records relied upon by the Single Judge, a step that underscores the evidentiary centrality of that digital material to the contempt inquiry.
Reinforcing the gravity of the proceedings, the Bench appointed Senior Advocate Ms. Rajdipa Behura as Amicus Curiae to independently assist the Court, noting implicitly that the issues involved warrant guidance beyond the submissions of the contesting parties alone. Notice was accepted on behalf of the State by Additional Public Prosecutor Mr. Aman Usman.
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