
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted six weeks to a Delhi BJP leader to respond to a plea moved by incumbent Delhi Chief Minister Atishi and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal against an order that refused to quash a defamation suit against them over their alleged remarks on deletion of voters’ names from the electoral roll.
A bench of Justice Hrishikesh Roy and Justice SVN Bhatti adjourned the hearing after the counsel for complainant Rajiv Babbar sought more time to file his response.
On September 30, last year, the apex court while issuing notice to Babbar stayed the proceedings before the trial court.
Babbar said he did not file the complaint in an individual capacity but as the authorised representative of the BJP, while bringing a January 2019 authorisation letter in his support
Previously, senior advocate Sonia Mathur, representing Babbar, submitted the alleged statements were defamatory in nature as they lowered BJP’s credibility among voters.
On the other hand, senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Atishi and Kejriwal, argued that the statements in question were made a few months before the general elections and ought to be taken as a part of the political discourse by the respective political parties contesting the elections.
The top court said the legal question was whether the complainant or a political party would be covered under the definition of “aggrieved persons” within Section 199 of CrPC as it would require scrutiny.
“In a democratic nation like India, freedom of speech is a fundamental right guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a). Therefore, a defamatory complaint under Section 499 must necessarily be made by an ‘aggrieved person’,” the court said.
The Delhi High Court however, while dismissing the plea, had noted the imputations were prima facie “defamatory”, with an intention of vilifying the BJP and gaining undue political mileage.