New Delhi, April 23 -- Delhi High Court judge Tejas Karia on Wednesday recused from hearing a petition seeking contempt action against Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal and several other leaders for allegedly publishing videos of court proceedings presided over by justice Swarana Kanta Sharma in the excise policy case. The petition, filed by advocate Vaibhav Singh, also sought directions to Meta Platforms, X, Arvind Kejriwal, and others to take down the videos of Kejriwal arguing his plea seeking justice Sharma's recusal. It was listed before a bench comprising chief justice DK Upadhyaya and justice Karia. However, when it was taken up, the court said it would not be able to hear the matter. "List this matter before a bench of which one of us (Tejas Karia) is not a member. List the matter tomorrow before another bench," the court ordered. To be sure, the plea has been filed even as the Delhi High Court last week directed the Delhi Police to take down the same video recordings from social media platforms. Besides Kejriwal, action has been sought against Congress leader Digvijay Singh, journalist Ravish Kumar and AAP leaders Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, Sanjeev Jha, Jarnail Singh, Mukesh Ahlawat, and Vinay Mishra. In his petition, Singh asserted that circulation of court proceedings violates the rules on online hearings under the Electronic Evidence and Video Recording Conference Rules, 2025, which prohibit the recording and publication of court proceedings. Such conduct, the petition stated, reflected a conspiracy to mislead the public, malign the court's image, and create pressure on the judicial system. On February 27, the trial court discharged Kejriwal, Sisodia and 21 others, holding that the CBI's material did not disclose even a prima facie case. The agency challenged this in the high court, calling the findings "inherently wrong" and claiming they ignored key evidence. Then on March 9, justice Sharma's bench stayed the trial court's direction for action against the CBI officer, terming the remarks "prima facie foundationally misconceived", and deferred ED proceedings. Following this, Kejriwal sought transfer of the appeal from justice Sharma's bench, which was rejected on March 13. He then filed an application seeking justice Sharma's recusal, for which he appeared in court on April 6 and April 13, arguing his application for over an hour - videos of which went viral on social media platforms. On Monday, justice Sharma dismissed the recusal applications....