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Synopsis

Justice Prathiba M. Singh of the Delhi High Court on Tuesday recused from hearing a plea filed by Former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Mumbai-based Only Much Louder and communications incharge of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Vijay Nair alleging that sensitive information had been leaked into the public domain by the investigation agencies.

During the hearing, Senior Advocate Dayan Krishnan appeared for Vijay Nair and Advocate Zoheb Hossain appeared for the Directorate of Enforcement (ED).

On perusal of the previous orders of the High Court, Justice Singh noticed that somebody she knew personally had been impleaded as a respondent in the case. Accordingly, she recused from hearing the matter and directed it to be listed before another bench on February 20.

It is to be noted that in November 2022, a bench of Justice Yashwant Varma issued notice to 5 media houses and directed the regulatory body to peruse the broadcasts and file a status report in a plea filed by Vijay Nair.

Justice Verma had asked the News Broadcasters & Digital Association (NBDA) to call their member media companies and ask them about the source of information leaked and other related information. "We want you to come back on this," the court had added. The bench was unhappy with the reportage by the media companies including Republic TV, India Today, etc, in the case. 

The counsel for the ED had informed the bench that no press release had been circulated in relation to the investigation. Additionally, the counsel for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had submitted that several press releases were circulated but no information relating to the investigation had been released along with the press release. The press release was given after the tweet of Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, he told.

The Court had asked, "We just want to clear and substantiate that none of these news broadcasts are given by the ED or CBI. Did they (media houses) ever reach out to the agency as to if the information is correct and how many witnesses have been examined?"

Notably, on November 14, 2022, Justice Verma had asked the CBI and ED to place on record all the press communication made in the public domain related to Nair, accused in connection with the Delhi Excise Policy case.

Vijay Nair was arrested on September 27 by the CBI and was initially remanded to 5-day CBI custody for his alleged role in the irregularities in the Excise policy of the Delhi government. 

Case Title: Vijay Nair v. Central Bureau of Investigation & Ors.