New Delhi: A bench of justices Navin Chawla and Ravinder Dudeja of the Delhi high court on Friday (May 22) issued notices to journalist Saurav Das and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and former minister in the Delhi government, Gopal Rai. The notices relate to a petition seeking criminal proceedings of contempt of court against them, Bar and Bench reports.The petition, filed by advocate Ashok Chaitanya, sought contempt cases against two other AAP leaders, former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and former minister Saurabh Bharadwaj. But, as the court said, both Kerjiwal and Bharadwaj are already charged with contempt in the high court in the same matter, along with others.The bench tagged Das and Rai to the ongoing contempt case, giving them until August 4 to respond to the notices. Thereafter, Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma’s court, which suo motu launched the earler contempt proceedings, would take up the charges against all four.“Instead of multiplying the matter, this contempt case be also taken up with the other matter,” the Division Bench said on Friday. The petitioner advocate Chaitanya reportedly alleges Kejriwal, Bharadwaj, Rai and Das participated in a “concerted” campaign against Justice Sharma while the Delhi Excise Policy case was before her court.The petition says a post allegedly published by Kejriwal on April 27, announcing he would boycott the proceedings, was pinned to his social media profile to “maximise its reach and visibility”. It said the others coordinated their responses in the form of a “campaign” against the judge, and shared factually incorrect information.The court has said the respondents’ social media accounts must be preserved.The first contempt case arose out of a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) revision petition filed in the high court against the acquittal of all 23, including AAP leaders, accused in the Delhi excise policy case.Confirming the development, Das released a statement on X on Friday:“The petitioner [Advocate Chaitanya] alleges that my report contains ‘serious, unfounded and scandalous allegations’ against Justice Sharma. I stand firmly by my reporting … Questions cannot be contempt.”*STATEMENT*As per reports, the Hon’ble Delhi High Court today has issued notice to me in a plea seeking initiation of criminal contempt proceedings over one of my reports concerning the appearance of conflict of interest and reasonable apprehension of bias in Justice Swarana…— Saurav Das (@SauravDassss) May 22, 2026In February, a trial court discharged Kejriwal and others in the excise policy case, investigated by the CBI. The CBI then challenged the order in the high court. The matter was placed before a single judge bench of Justice Sharma.Kejriwal and others requested the recusal of Justice Sharma, citing “apprehension of bias”, which the judge rejected, saying it would set an unfavourable precedent and that the charges were not backed by evidence of bias.Kejriwal refused to appear in her court and former Delhi minister Manish Sisodia and AAP leader Durgesh Pathak followed suit. As the controversy snowballed, Justice Sharma said aspersions were being cast and recused from the matter, while launching contempt proceedings against the former chief minister and his former Cabinet colleague, Bharadwaj.