Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma of the Delhi High Court Friday said that the court is “awaiting consent from some persons” who are expected to represent the three Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders — Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and Durgesh Pathak — as amicus curiae in the CBI’s challenge to the discharge of 23 accused in the alleged liquor policy scam.

After the three leaders declared last month that they will opt to go legally unrepresented before Justice Sharma’s court in the excise policy case, the judge earlier this week had said that she will be appointing three senior advocates to represent them.

The court is expected to pass an order on the senior advocates appointed to represent the three on Monday.

In criminal cases, where an amicus curiae is appointed to represent an unrepresented litigant, the amicus curiae often serves as the defence lawyer.

However, what presents a unique position here is the fact that Kejriwal, Sisodia and Pathak have voluntarily refused to be represented by legal counsel in the HC.

The HC, while dealing with criminal matters which involve a question of law, in the past, has also appointed amicus curiae, largely to assist the court.

Meanwhile, AAP’s former communications in-charge Vijay Nair and media executive Arvind Kumar Sigh have moved applications before the Delhi HC, challenging the maintainability of the CBI’s revision plea.

The CBI, in a revision plea before the HC, is challenging a trial court order from February that discharged 23 accused – including Kejriwal, Sisodia and Pathak – in the excise policy case.

In April, the three AAP leaders, in three letters purportedly sent to Justice Sharma after she refused to recuse herself from hearing the CBI’s plea, had said that they will be opting to go legally unrepresented before the court.

In a purported ‘satyagraha’ move, they have objected to Justice Sharma’s alleged “public association with the RSS’s legal front Akhil Bharatiya Adhivakta Parishad”, to which AAP claims, it is ideologically opposed to.

They have also said that they apprehend bias if Justice Sharma hears the matter, given that her children are on the Union government’s advocates’ panels and are assigned cases by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta. Mehta is appearing for the CBI in the excise policy case before Justice Sharma at the HC.