Taking note of Vikrant Jaitly’s “wish to not communicate with his sister”, the Delhi high court on Monday closed the petition of Bollywood actor Celina Jaitly was seeking directions to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to facilitate interaction with her brother.. Celina Jaitly’s brother, Major (Retd) Vikrant Jaitly, has been in detention in the UAE for 18 months now.. Celina’s petition seeks directions to the Centre to facilitate legal assistance for her brother and enable communication with him. Vikrant Jaitly has been detained in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for over 18 months for reasons not known yet.. The Centre on Monday told the Delhi high court that Celina Jaitly’s detained brother Vikrant was unwilling to be represented by any law firm, including the one chosen by his sister, to communicate with her, and had said that decisions regarding legal representation would be taken solely by his wife, Charul, HT reported earlier.. The submission was made by Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma before a bench of Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav in Celina’s petition. The same was based on a February 18 meeting between the Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi and Vikrant.. Noting submissions by the ASG, the high court closed Celina Jaitly’s petition and turned down her further request for at least one opportunity to speak with her brother through video conferencing to confirm his stand.. Saying that the court must adhere to Vikrant’s stated position and that the reliefs sought had been “sufficiently” addressed, the judge said that there was no reason to keep the matter pending.. The court said that the Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi had been in “active contact with Vikrant” and had interacted with him nine times since his detention. The bench directed the Centre to continue providing legal assistance to Vikrant and look after his well-being.. “The Indian officials deputed in UAE, when interacted and when Mr Jaitly says something we’ll have to adhere to it. There is no reason to doubt that. Why we should continue this petition?”, the earlier report quoted the bench as saying.. On the basis of the statement and undertakings given by the MEA, the bench said, it has come on record that the respondent is in active contact with Vikrant Jaitly.. It also appears that counsellor access to Jaitely has been granted, the bench further said.. “The officials of the embassy of India in Abu Dhabi have interacted 9 times. In view of the aforesaid, aforenoted facts and developments, there is no reason to keep the petition pending and the same is accordingly disposed of,” it said.
