The Supreme Court on Friday deferred hearing on a plea by Delhi CM Atishi, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and others seeking to quash a defamation case filed by Delhi BJP leader Rajeev Babbar against the AAP party head.
A bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and SVN Bhatti acknowledged the statement made by senior advocate Sonia Mathur, representing Babbar. She noted that her caveat was not included in the office report and explained that she was unable to file a response because the petition was served late Thursday evening.
The two-judge apex court bench further listed the matter for hearing on Monday, September 30.
The Delhi High Court had on September 2 refused to dismiss the defamation proceedings against Kejriwal in the case that goes back years.
In February 2020, the HC had stayed the proceedings in the case against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other AAP leaders. AAP leaders had approached the Delhi High Court and sought the quashing of two court orders: the magisterial court’s order dated 15 March 2019 and the sessions court’s order dated 28 January 2020.
Arvind Kejriwal had moved the Delhi High Court in 2020 saying that the defamation complaint was not maintainable, given that it is vague and does not disclose who is the “person aggrieved” maintaining the complaint.
The trial court, in February 2020 had observed that the allegations made by Kejriwal and others are prima facie defamatory and refer to the BJP.
Babbar had accused Kejriwal and other AAP leaders of defaming the BJP by alleging that the party was responsible for removing a total of 30 lakh names of electors from the Delhi electoral rolls, with the people mainly belonging to the ‘Baniya’, Muslim and other communities.
Rajeev Babbar, through the defamation case, sought proceedings against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other Aam Aadmi Party leaders, naming Sushil Kumar Gupta, Atishi Marlena, and Manoj Kumar. Babbar alleged that they harmed the BJP’s reputation by accusing the party of being responsible for the deletion of voters’ names from the electoral rolls in Delhi.
The Delhi BJP leader claimed the statements of AAP party leaders were intended to damage the BJP’s reputation by targeting specific voter groups, including Bania, Poorvanchalis, and Muslims, resulting in irreparable harm to the complainant’s reputation.
