NEW DELHI: Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court on Wednesday upheld its earlier order summoning BJP leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa and others while dismissing their revision petitions in a defamation case against a Sikh leader.
Special Judge Geetanjli Goel said, "There is no perversity, illegality, irregularity or impropriety" in the earlier court order passed on June 30 which summoned Sirsa, Harmeet Singh Kalka, and Jagdeep Singh Kahlon for making defamatory statements against former Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee (DSGMC) president Manjit Singh GK.
The court said, "After considering all the relevant aspects, there is no reason to set aside" the earlier order of the Magisterial court.
It said it is not within the province of the revisional court to enter into the merits of the alleged defamatory statements.
It was also observed that at the stage of summoning, the court is only to take a prima facie view and the contentions regarding the statements.
"No fault can be found with the said findings of the Ld. ACMM and they are clearly based on a correct appreciation of the facts of the case and the settled legal position," it was held.
"Accordingly, the revision petitions are without merits and the same are dismissed," it said while refusing to grant relief to the three.
Sirsa, Kalka, and Kahlon are also former office bearers of the DSGMC.
It is the case of Manjit Singh that the accused persons by way of press conferences, media reports, social media etc have made defamatory statements against him of siphoning off cash and misappropriating funds from the DSGMC.
Sirsa and others argued that the allegations are not defamatory in nature the Magistrate had no material to show common intention to invoke Section 34 IPC and the summoning order was unsustainable.
The court noted that the accused persons' remarks in a press conference against the petitioner including golak chor (thief of public money of gurudwara), kalankit pradhan (stigmatized president of DSGMC) would be a matter of trial and at this stage only a prima facie view is to be taken.