Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was cross-examined in open court on Monday by senior lawyer Ram Jethmalani.
Jaitley had sued Aam Aadmi Party for accusing him of a role in financial mismanagement at Delhi’s cricket body DDCA. He had filed a defamation case demanding 10 crore damages from Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, and five other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders.
In the cross-examination that went on for hours, Jethmalani asked Jaitley to explain how he called the damage to his reputation “irreparable and unquantifiable” and whether it had anything to do with his “personal feelings of greatness”, according to reports.
Jethmalani said the minister had not suffered any monetary damage, “which is why you call it unquantifiable”. “What compelled Mr Jaitley to decide that the damage is irreparable”, Jethmalani asked.
Jaitley responded, “The loss of my reputation has been partly quantified in terms of money. Loss of a reputation causes mental distress to the person defamed, which it did in my case.”
“Considering my stature, background and reputation, the loss caused to me and my reputation was so enormous that it was considered unquantifiable,” he added.
Jethmalani then retaliated, “in other words it was your personal feeling about your greatness, that it can’t be estimated in terms of fiscal measure.
