Gauhati HC quashes Sisodia petition in Assam CM's defamation case

The order reinstated the lower court's summon to Sisodia for personal appearance on November 19

Assam advocate general Devajit Saikia on Monday said that the Gauhati High Court had quashed Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisdodia's petition challenging a lower court's order for criminal proceedings against him in a defamation case filed by Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma.

The High Court's rejection reinstated the order of the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Kamrup in Assam, in which a summon was issued to Sisodia for a personal appearance on November 19.

The Kamrup court had issued the summon after hearing Sarma's defamation petition which was filed after Sisodia made corruption allegations against the Assam CM. Sisodia had alleged that Sarma had given contracts of PPE kits to a firm linked to his wife, Riniki Bhuyan Sarma, at Rs 990 per piece while the same item was procured from others at Rs 660 during the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020. Sarma was the Health Minister of the state then and became the CM in May last year.

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Sisodia in a press conference in New Delhi had alleged that there was a scam involved in the process.

Both Sarma and his wife denied the allegations and Sarma filed the defamation case against Sisodia and stated that the firm in question did not get any money from the government and had donated the PPE kits to the state health department under its CSR programme.

"Sarma and two witnesses had also appeared in the court during the hearing of the criminal defamation case. The CJM court had registered the case under Section 499, 500, and 501 of the IPC against Sisodia. The court then issued a summon to Sisodia for a personal appearance. But Sisodia had moved the Gauhati High Court and challenged the lower court's order. Today the court of Justice Kalyan Rai Surana quashed Sisodia's petition and said the allegations were baseless, fictitious and were with motives. The High Court order thus reinstated the lower court's directive to Sisodia for a personal appearance on November 29," Saikia told reporters in Guwahati on Monday.