NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party MP Raghav Chadha moved the Delhi High Court on Monday against a trial court order dismissing his appeal against the summons issued to him in a defamation complaint made by BJP leader Chhail Bihari Goswami.
As Chadha’s counsel informed the high court that some additional documents need to be filed in the matter, Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma posted the matter for further hearing on December 11. The court also issued notice on the plea.
On November 9, a Delhi court had rejected the revision petitions filed by AAP leaders Satyender Jain and Raghav Chadha in the defamation case filed by Goswami.
Special Judge M K Nagpal of Rouse Avenue Court had upheld the magisterial court’s order summoning them as accused in the matter, saying that the summoning order was “perfectly correct and legal on facts as well as in law”.
“…both these criminal revision petitions are dismissed, and the impugned orders dated 16.02.2022 and 09.11.2022 are upheld being perfectly correct and legal on facts as well as in law,” the court had said.
Challenging this, Chadha was approaching the high court. Goswami had filed the complaint before a metropolitan magistrate accusing Jain, a former Delhi minister and sitting MLA, and Chadha, a Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab, of having made alleged defamatory remarks against him over North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) funds. Goswami was the chairperson of the NDMC Standing Committee.
He alleged that the two AAP leaders made the remarks to “lower the moral and intellectual character of the complainant in the eyes of the general public”.
Notably, SC had recently informed that Chadha will tender an unconditional apology to Rajya Sabha chairperson Jagdeep Dhankar in relation to a ‘misconduct’ which resulted in his suspension from the House. Chadha’s suspension has been cleared by Dhankhar for including names of some members of the Upper House without their consent in a proposed select committee for the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023.