HC reserves decision to summon Kejriwal in defamation

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday reserved its decision on a plea of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy CM Manish Sisodia seeking quashing of a defamation complaint against them by BJP leader Vijender Gupta.

Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar, after hearing arguments on behalf of Kejriwal and Sisodia, said he will pass an order on their plea in-chamber.

Kejriwal and Sisodia, apart from seeking quashing of the complaint, have also challenged the subsequent orders of the lower court framing charge against them and summoning them for trial in the defamation case.

Senior advocate Vikas Pahwa and advocate Arunadhri Iyer, appearing for the two Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders, told the court that only their clients were named in the complaint, when the alleged defamatory tweet was retweeted, commented upon and liked by thousands of others.

"Law is very clear that defamation would apply to all of them," Pahwa said.

He said the high court recently in another defamation complaint against Kejriwal, for retweeting an allegedly defamatory tweet, had stayed the proceedings as the others who had retweeted had not been made an accused.

The two AAP leaders, in their plea filed through advocate Mohd Irsad, have also sought a stay of further proceedings in the case.

Gupta, in his complaint, had accused Kejriwal and Sisodia of "maligning" his image by allegedly accusing him on Twitter of being part of an alleged "conspiracy" to kill the AAP chief.