New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday (January 21) granted six weeks to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Rajiv Babbar to respond to a plea of Delhi Chief Minister Atishi and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal challenging a Delhi High Court order refusing to quash a defamation case against them over their alleged remarks on deletion of the voters’ names.
A bench comprising Justice Hrishikesh Roy and Justice SVN Bhatti adjourned the hearing on AAP leaders plea after the counsel representing complainant Babbar sought more time to file his response.
Apex court earlier stayed defamation proceedings before trial court
The apex court earlier on September 30 last year, while hearing AAP leaders plea, stayed proceedings before the trial court. The stay on the proceedings before the trial court was later extended by the top court.
Apex Court, while staying proceedings, issued notice to Delhi government, Babbar
The top court earlier, while staying the proceedings on September 30 last year, had also issued notice to the Delhi government and BJP leader Babbar and sought their response on AAP leaders plea.
Babbar has said that the remarks made by the AAP leaders about the alleged deletion of names of voters lowered the reputation of the BJP.
High Court refused to quash proceedings against Atishi, Kejriwal and others
The High Court refused to quash defamation proceedings against the AAP leaders on a complaint filed by Babbar on behalf of the Delhi unit of the BJP over their remarks about alleged deletion of the names of 30 lakh voters belonging to certain communities from electoral rolls in the national capital.
What did the High Court say?
“The issue highlighted by the petitioners (AAP leaders) regarding discrepancies in the list of voters prepared and uploaded on the website of Election Commission may have been crucial and critical from the perspective of citizens, but imputing that the exercise of deletion of names of certain communities was at instance of BJP clearly exhibits that the imputations were made with malafides. Prima facie, the imputations lower down the reputation of BJP and undermine the trust of the voters in the said party,” the High Court said while refusing to quash defamation proceedings against Atishi and Kejriwal.
