Delhi High Court Refuses To Stay Proceedings Against BJP Leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa In Criminal Defamation Case

The Delhi High Court has refused to stay the criminal proceedings against BJP leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa in a criminal defamation case filed by former president of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, Manjit Singh GK.

Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma upheld the trial court order passed on November 29 last year which upheld the summons issued to Sirsa by an ACMM court.

“Thus, upon a prima facie examination of the impugned order and without going much into the merits of the case, lest it affects the case of the petitioner or respondent no. 2 at a later stage before this Court or Trial Court, this Court finds that the learned ASJ has examined in detail, the issue of registration of FIR in relation to letter dated 04.04.2016 and simultaneous proceedings in the present complaint case for commission of offence of defamation, and at this stage, this Court does not find any reasons to stay the proceedings in the present complaint case,” the court said.

It was Singh's case that Sirsa, and other accused persons, had been defaming him regularly through social media posts, videos and press conferences which are available on the internet and have not been removed. 

He also alleged that he was called “golak chor and kalankit pradhan” by the accused.

Dismissing Sirsa's plea seeking stay on criminal proceedings, the court said that Prima facie, the offence of defamation in the case was not a one-time offence committed in 2020 and thus, there was no infirmity with the observations of the trial court.

However, the court clarified that the observations were only prima facie in nature and shall not be construed as opinion on the merits of the case.

Counsel for Petitioner: Mr. N. Hariharan, Senior Advocate with Mr. Jasprit Singh Rai, Mr. Yoginder Handoo & Mr. Ashwin Kataria, Advocates

Counsel for Respondents: Mr. Manoj Pant, APP for the State with Inspector Chetan Mandia, EOW; Mr. Mohit Mathur, Senior Advocate with Mr. Naginder Benipal, Mr. Sumit Misra & Mr. Mayank Sharma, Advocates for R-2

Title: MANJINDER SINGH SIRSA v. STATE NCT OF DELHI AND ANR.

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Del) 100