A Delhi court on Wednesday refused to restrain Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Somnath Bharti from representing his wife Lipika Mitra in a defamation case lodged by her against Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.The defamation case filed by Mitra alleged that Sitharaman made “defamatory, false, and malicious” statements about her husband, which were aired widely on news platforms on TV and YouTube, with the alleged objective of “tarnishing his reputation and damaging his electoral prospects” during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.The court was hearing Sitharaman’s application seeking a direction that Bharti withdraw his Vakalatnama or the legal document concerned from the matter. Her application stated that since Bharti was Mitra’s husband, he was a personal as well as pecuniary beneficiary of the case.Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Paras Dalal of Rouse Avenue Court, in his order dated October 8, stated: “This court finds no bar to the spouse prosecuting or defending his or her spouse. There is no bar to even claim for maximum possible punishment or compensation, even when the spouse is defending or prosecuting for his/ her spouse. In law, the husband and wife are two separate natural persons and their pecuniary interests may be different.”“A spouse, in this backdrop, may prosecute or defend the interest of the other before the Court of law. Although one may also say that in such a case, the spouse would show keen interest to seek higher compensation or relief, however, this cannot be called illegal unless some unethical practice is employed,” the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate said.The order further read, “…to pre-empt lack of objectivity in every scenario of spouse defending or prosecuting for his/her spouse would be to challenge a healthy relationship between the Bar and the Bench.”