New Delhi [India], August 28 : The Delhi High Court on Thursday requested a trial court to defer hearing on the charge in an alleged Model Code of Conduct (MCC) violation case against Delhi Law Minister Kapil Mishra to a subsequent date.
Mishra has sought a stay on the trial court proceedings, stating that the response received from X (formerly Twitter) is incomprehensible and in code language. He has requested an interpreted copy before the arguments on the charge commence.
The High Court was informed that arguments on the charge were listed for Friday.
After hearing the submissions, Justice Ravinder Dudeja requested the trial court to defer the matter.
"Since no time is left, it is not possible to hear and dispose of the petition today, the learned trial court is requested to defer the hearing on charge to a date subsequent to the date fixed by this Court," Justice Dudeja said in the order dated August 28.
The High Court has fixed the matter for hearing on October 13.
Senior counsel Mahesh Jethmalani, appearing for Mishra, submitted that pursuant to the trial court's direction, the investigating agency had sought information from X.
In response, X provided a single URL link for downloading data, which was accessed by the investigating agency and submitted along with a supplementary chargesheet.
"Since the documents are incomprehensible, the prosecution before hearing of arguments on charge must provide interpreted documents to the petitioner, failing which, the trial may get vitiated," Senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani submitted.
Senior Advocate Pavan Narang, along with advocates Neeraj and Himanshu Sethi, also appeared for Mishra.
The Delhi Police has already filed a status report. The court also allowed an application seeking to place on record two supplementary chargesheets filed by the police.
It was submitted on behalf of Kapil Mishra that Delhi Police filed Chargesheet No. 2 on July 5, 2025, before the trial
court, stating that the investigation is complete in all aspects regarding Twitter's response. Subsequently, Chargesheet No. 3 was filed on August 1, 2025.
It was submitted by Senior Advocate Jethmalani that the annexed documents, which are part of the present application, are essential, necessary and required for the proper adjudication of the case.
The documents, including the trial court's orders, are relevant and necessary for determining the real question of controversy and for the effective adjudication of the case, the senior advocate submitted.
The bench noted that the additional documents are pertinent, as they clearly provided what the response from X was and how it can be read in favour of the petitioner.
The bench ordered, "Since the documents sought to be placed on record are part of the record of the trial court, the application is allowed and the documents be taken on record."
Earlier, Kapil Mishra had challenged a trial court order rejecting his appeal against the summons issued by the Magistrate's court.
The Rouse Avenue court in March had dismissed the revision filed by Law Minister Kapil Mishra. The same is pending before the High Court. He had challenged the Cognisance and Summoning order of the trial court.
The trial court took cognisance of the charge sheet in an alleged violation of the Model Code of Conduct in 2020. This matter is at the stage of arguements on framing of charges.
Kapil Mishra earlier had filed a revision against the summoning order of June 22, 2024, passed by the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate of the Rouse Avenue District Court and all consequential proceedings pending in the Criminal Case against him under Section 125 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (RP Act).
An FIR was registered upon receipt of a letter of 24.01.2020 from the office of the Returning Officer, Assembly Constituency Model Town, addressed to the DCP, North West, regarding violation of the Model Code of Conduct and the RP Act, by Mishra.