New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday (September 30) stayed defamation proceedings filed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Rajiv Babbar against Delhi Chief Minister Atishi and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal before a trial court.
Apex court also issued notice to Delhi Govt, Babbar on a plea by AAP leaders
A bench comprising Justice Hrishikesh Roy and Justice SVN Bhatti stayed the proceedings while hearing a plea filed by the AAP leaders challenging an order of the Delhi High Court refusing to quash defamation proceedings against them.
The top court bench also issued notice to the Delhi government and BJP leader Babbar and sought their response on AAP leaders plea.
What did the AAP leaders submit before the top court?
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who appeared for the Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convenor, submitted before bench that the defamation case has been filed by Babbar, as authorised representative of BJP Delhi, and neither BJP central nor BJP Delhi has filed any complaint and Babbar is not the person who has been allegedly defamed by them.
Senior advocate Sonia Mathur, appearing for BJP leader Babbar, submitted that Babbar has filed the case on behalf of the party.
After hearing the submissions, the bench issued notice to the Delhi Government and Babbar and stayed the proceedings before the trial court.
High Court earlier refused to quash proceedings against Atishi, Kejriwal and others
The High Court had refused to quash defamation proceedings against AAP leaders filed by Babbar on behalf the Delhi unit of the party over their remarks about alleged deletion of the names of 30 lakh voters belonging to certain communities from electoral rolls in the national capital.
The High Court had said, “The issue highlighted by the petitioners (Atishi, Kejriwal) 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.”
Read latest India news here. Also get top breaking news, headlines and latest news from India and around the world news at IndiaPost Live.
