New Delhi, Mar 7 (India Today) : For the second consecutive day today, senior lawyer Ram Jethmalani cross-questioned Finance Minister Arun Jaitley during the hearing of the defamation case that the Union minister has filed against Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and four other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders.
The courtroom repeatedly witnessed heated exchange between the two senior lawyers - Jethmalani and Jaitley.
The AAP leaders are accused of posting defamatory statements against Jaitley on social media post a CBI raid in the Delhi CM's office in 2015.
WHAT HAPPENED INSIDE THE COURT:
Referring to Jaitley's 2014 Lok Sabha election loss, Jethmalani rubbed it in saying a person who has lost an election should not talk about reputation. "What reputation are you talking about. You lost the election in 2014," the senior lawyer said.
Jaitley hit back at Jethmalani in the same vein targeting his client Arvind Kejriwal. "Even Kejriwal lost in 2014. Elections are fought over party's policies and not over one's personal reputations," Jaitley said.
On Monday, Jethmalani targeted Jaitley on two words - goodwill and reputation. "You (Jaitley) have used the word 'goodwill' in the letter addressed to the deputy registrar. Are you aware about the difference between goodwill and reputation?" he said.
The minister replied: "There are over-lapping areas in the meaning of the two words and the counsel's letter dated December 21, 2015, in that sense uses them 'interchangeably'."
Jethmalini then confronted Jaitley with a Webster's dictionary and explained to him the difference between the two words.
However, the court, as well as Jaitley's counsel, raised objection saying that a witness cannot be confronted with a dictionary.
Jethmalani once again grilled Jaitley, asking him whether he agrees that men in power oblige their friends and enjoy goodwill, and reputation does not suffer from such statement as goodwill suffers.
The senior counsel also said that goodwill is enjoyed by a crook, who does good things for someone.
Jaitley told the court that the statements by AAP leaders were made to deflect attention from the raid and link him to a controversy related to the functioning of DDCA. He added that the leaders could have politically criticised him, but it is for the first time that 'personal imputations' questioning his integrity were made.