Key Points:
An investigative report by journalist Saurav Das highlights crucial points in Justice Swaran Kanta Sharma's career, where she has allegedly been seen favouring BJP politicans.
The report reveals the judge’s children hold multiple lucrative government legal panels, raising serious concerns about impartiality and patronage.
In the Ongoing matter related to CBI's petition against Kejriwal regarding his discharge in the 2021-2022 Delhi Excise Policy Case, Justice Sharma is the sitting Judge.
Arvind Kejriwal is facing a CBI petition against his discharge in the now defunct 2021-22 Delhi Excise Policy Case. The matter is set to be heard today, April 13, 2026, regarding Kejriwal’s plea seeking the recusal of the presiding judge, Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma of the Delhi High Court, citing apprehensions about her impartiality. Justice Sharma had taken the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief’s application for her recusal on record in the previous hearing on April 6, 2026.
Kejriwal's plea cites Justice Sharma's attendance at a legal seminar organized by the Akhil Bharatiya Adhivakta Parishad (ABAP), affiliated with the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) as grounds for an alleged ideological bias. She attended multiple such events between 2022-2025. In response, the CBI filed an affidavit arguing that attending a legal seminar does not demonstrate bias. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who is representing CBI in the case, strongly opposed the move, calling the allegations against the institution "frivolous, vexatious, and contemptuous."
According to an investigative report shared by journalist Saurav Das, an analysis of 165 similar criminal revision petitions showed the Judge took an unusually strange interest in Kejriwal's specific case. Noting the Judge’s special interest in the case, multiple reports brought forward various matters she heard, in which she reportedly favoured politicians from the ruling BJP accused in a case, while denying bail to politicians from the opposition.
In one such matter, hearing cases relating to Delhi excise policy, she denied bail to Kejriwal, former Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia and BRS (Bharat Rashtra Samithi) leader K Kavitha, and other politicians. However, she stayed a special CBI court conviction of BJP politician Dilip Ray in the 1999 Brahmadiha Coal Scam Case, allowing him to campaign for the 2024 Odisha Assembly elections.
More importantly, Justice Sharma’s son and daughter, Ishaan Sharma and Shambhavi Sharma, have both been empanelled by the Union government to represent it before the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court. The empanelment for both siblings reportedly happened on the exact same dates, September 11, 2025, for the Delhi High Court and November 21, 2025, for the Supreme Court.
Furthermore, an RTI reply filed by Das showed that Ishaan was allocated an unusually high volume of state cases, surpassing even the top Enforcement Directorate lawyer, Zoheb Hossain, in 2024 and 2025. Given that panel counselships signify visibility, experience, professional standing and high incomes, the report argues that justice must not only be done but also be seen to be done.
Since the very government whose top law officers are appearing before Justice Sharma is allocating these lucrative positions to her children, several discharged individuals argue this creates a clear apprehension of bias and impairs objectivity.
Before this current high court drama, Kejriwal was discharged of all the corruption charges in the previous Delhi government’s excise policy case on February 27, 2026, by a Delhi trial court. The other accused in the case, including Manish Sisodia and K Kavitha along with 20 others, were also granted relief by the court. Kejriwal is personally arguing for the ongoing case in the Delhi High Court.
(Rh/GP)
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