Delhi High Court Refuses To Quash BJP Leader's Defamation Case Against CM Arvind Kejriwal, Atishi

The Delhi High Court on Monday refused to quash a defamation case filed by a BJP leader against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders for their remarks over alleged deletion of voters' names from electoral rolls in the national capital in 2018.

Justice Anoop Kumar Mendiratta dismissed the plea moved by Kejriwal and AAP leaders against a sessions court order upholding a magisterial court's order to summon them as accused in the complaint.

The complaint was moved by BJP leader Rajeev Babbar against Kejriwal, Sushil Kumar Gupta, Manoj Kumar and Atishi Marlena.

The court observed that under the Constitutional scheme, every citizen has the right to know true information to form opinion about political processes. But a political party cannot be permitted to sponsor the print media and to make defamatory allegations against rival political party.

The court further said that the remarks are prima facie defamatory and made in order to vilify the BJP as alleging that BJP was responsible for deletion of voters names.

Observing that the remarks were made in order to gain undue political mileage, the court upheld the trial court order summoning Kejriwal and other AAP leaders for the offence of defamation.

Proceedings in the case was stayed in 2020 by a coordinate bench. Justice Mendiratta vacated the said interim order and directed the parties to appear before the trial court on October 03.

Babbar sought action against Kejriwal and AAP leaders for "harming" the reputation of Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) by blaming it for deletion of the names of voters from electoral rolls.

He had claimed that the AAP leaders, during a press conference in December 2018, alleged that on the directions of BJP, names of 30 lakh voters from Bania, Poorvanchali and the Muslim community had been deleted by the Election Commission of India.

Before the High Court, Kejriwal and AAP leaders submitted that the trial court had failed to appreciate that no offence was made out against them.

They contended that the trial court orders failed to appreciate that the AAP leaders did not make or publish any statement against Babbar or his party as alleged by him. 

Title: Arvind Kejriwal & Ors. v. State & Anr. 

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Del) 961