In the continuing defamation case brought against Arvind Kejriwal and Delhi Chief Minister Atishi, the Supreme Court on Monday suspended the criminal proceedings.
The High Court denied postponing the proceedings against Kejriwal and Atishi in the defamation lawsuit filed against them for the 2018 comment in an order dated September 2. The AAP leaders claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had removed names from the Delhi voter list.
The Supreme Court agreed to examine whether defamation laws can restrict remarks made during political discourse since Article 19(1) of the Constitution protects freedom of speech and expression. The court gave notice of the case filed by Kejriwal and Atishi.
On the basis of the plea filed by Kejriwal and Atishi, the court also sent a notice to the Delhi government and BJP leader Rajiv Babbar, disputing the high court’s decision to not drop the charges against them. The trial court’s Monday proceedings were halted by a bench of Justices SVN Bhatti and Hrishikesh Roy.
Senior attorney Abhishek Singhvi stated that Babbar, acting as the official representative of the BJP Delhi, filed the defamation lawsuit on behalf of Atishi and Kejriwal. “Neither Delhi nor the Central BJP have submitted a complaint. Babar is not the person I have purportedly maligned,” he argued.
Atishi and Kejriwal had contested the September 2 Delhi High Court ruling that denied their request to have the case against them dismissed due to comments they had made on the purported removal of names from the voter list. They claimed that the BJP’s reputation had been damaged by the imputations.
According to the high court, the accusations were made with the goal to malign the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and gain excessive political mileage.
In addition to Atishi and Kejriwal, the case names former Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Gupta and party leader Manoj Kumar as AAP leaders.
Babbar filed the lawsuit against the AAP leaders, claiming that the party had a press conference in 2018 and that the Election Commission of India had removed the names of about 30 lakh voters from Bania, Poorvanchali, and the Muslim community from the Delhi voter list on the BJP’s orders.