New Delhi 

A Delhi court on Wednesday allowed Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Somnath Bharti to represent his wife, Lipika Mitra, in her criminal defamation case against Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Paras Dalal of the Rouse Avenue Courts observed that husband and wife are separate legal entities with “different proprietary and pecuniary interests”, and that representing one’s spouse in court is neither “unethical nor immoral”.

The matter has now been listed for pre-summoning evidence on November 1.