SC stays defamation proceedings against Kejriwal, Atishi

New Delhi, Sep 30 : In a major relief to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal and Delhi Chief Minister Atishi, the Supreme Court on Monday halted proceedings in a defamation case filed against them for their remarks over alleged deletion of voters' names from electoral rolls.

In its interim order, a bench, headed by Justice Hrishikesh Roy, stressed that the political discourse has to be placed at a "higher threshold", adding that the question of whether a political party could be treated as an aggrieved person for instituting a defamation suit will require a deeper examination.

"Issue Notice returnable in four weeks. In the meantime, further proceedings shall remain stayed," said the Bench, also comprising Justice S.V.N. Bhatti.

The Delhi High Court, in its impugned judgment of September 2, refused to interfere with the trial court’s summoning order issued to the AAP leaders for the commission of offences under Sections 499/500 of the now-repealed IPC (Indian Penal Code).

Dismissing the petition, a bench of Justice Anoop Kumar Mendiratta said: "The defence taken by the petitioners that the imputations were made bonafide and in the public good, needs to be proved and established during the course of trial."

"The imputations in the present case are prima facie defamatory, with the intention of vilifying BJP and gaining undue political mileage by attributing that the BJP was responsible for deletion of names of about 30 lakh voters belonging to particular communities," it added.

The bench further said that "a political party hardly has any role in addition or deletion of the names in the voters' list, as the said task is assigned to the Election Commission to be taken in accordance with law".

In March 2019, the trial court had summoned Kejriwal, Atishi, and Sushil Kumar Gupta, along with Manoj Kumar, on a complaint filed by Rajiv Babbar, the authorised representative of the BJP Delhi unit. In his complaint, Babbar claimed that the AAP leader addressed a press conference alleging that on the direction of the BJP, names of 30 lakh voters from Baniya, Purvanchali, and Muslim communities had been deleted by the Election Commission.