Delhi HC sets aside stay on proceeding in Mahua Moitra’s defamation case against Sudhir Chaudhary

The Delhi High Court today sets aside order staying proceedings before Metropolitan Magistrate in Mahua Moitra’s criminal defamation case against Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary..The order was passed by a Single Judge Bench of Justice Brijesh Sethi..The order of stay was passed by Additional Sessions Judge Rakesh Syal in a revision petition preferred by Sudhir Chaudhary against an order passed by the Metropolitan Magistrate..Mahua Moitra had filed the criminal defamation case before the Court of Metropolitan Magistrate after Chaudhary alleged that Moitra’s June 25 speech in Parliament on the ‘Seven Signs of Fascism’, was plagiarized..Meanwhile, Chaudhary also approached the courts by filing an application under Section 340 CrPC to initiate criminal action against Moitra for her “false” criminal defamation case and for “playing fraud” with the court..After concluding the pre-summoning in the defamation case, Metropolitan Magistrate Preeti Parewa had posted the case for orders on the issue of summons..Meanwhile, before the Sessions Court, Chaudhary raised objections on the ground that the Metropolitan Magistrate proceeded with the defamation case without hearing the application under Section 340..Subsequently, the Additional Sessions Court stayed the proceedings before the Metropolitan Magistrate. Aggrieved by the stay, Moitra moved the High Court..Assailing the order, Moitra had argued that the order of the Sessions Court was erroneous as it had no power to stall pre-summoning proceedings under revision jurisdiction..Chaudhary had defended the order of stay on the ground that the Section 340 application ought to be decided first..It was also argued that the Moitra’s writ petition was not maintainable in view of the limited power of the High Court in the exercise of the writ of certiorari..Moitra was represented by Advocates Nitya Ramakrishnan, Siddharth Aggarwal, Shadan Farasat and Adit Pujari..Chaudhary was represented by Advocate Mudit Jain.