New Delhi: A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader has moved the Delhi High Court against a trial court order dismissing his defamation complaint against Delhi Chief Minister Atishi.
A special judge (MP/MLA cases) on January 28 quashed summons issued to Atishi by a magisterial court on a criminal defamation case filed by BJP leader Praveen Shankar Kapoor, saying the Delhi Chief Minister was in the nature of a “whistleblower” and couldn’t be treated as having acted to defame the BJP and his complaint was “an attempt to defeat criminal investigation and suppress the freedom of speech as well as the right to know”.
What did the special judge say?
“The big voice cannot scupper the smaller voice using the weapon of defamation. Any foot solider of a big enterprise like the party in question (BJP) must necessarily project broad shoulders in accepting an alternative political narrative. Such responsibility accompanies the privilege of being the ruling party,” special judge Vishal Gogne said while rejecting Kapoor’s complaint and quashing summons issued to Atishi.
What has the BJP leader said in his plea before High Court?
Kapoor, in his plea, has said that the trial court judge went “beyond” the scope of his power in law while rejecting his defamation complaint and quashing the summons issued to Atishi by a magisterial court.
“The Special Judge has ventured into political adventurism akin to a political discourse by attempting to determine who is a bigger/smaller political entity, which was not at all and never be the scope of adjudication in revision proceedings. The Special Judge did not even permit the complainant to have a trial in order to make good his allegations,” Kapoor’s plea alleged, while seeking quashing of the trial court order, and added, “The Special Judge (MP/MLA Cases) has transgressed from the criminal complaint and has dealt with issues which are of little significance to the case in hand.”
What did the BJP leader allege?
Kapoor accused the Delhi Chief Minister and Arvind Kejriwal, former Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor, of defaming him through her reported claim that several AAP MLAs were approached by the BJP with offers of cash to bring down the AAP government in the national capital.
