Himachal Pradesh High Court issues notice to CM Sukhwinder Sukhu in defamation suit by BJP leaders

The Himachal Pradesh High Court recently issued notice to Chief Minister (CM) Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu in civil defamation suits moved by Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Davinder Kumar and Hoshyar Singh..While Kumar was a former who was disqualified for defying the party’s whip, Singh is an independent MLA. Both are now part of BJP.While Kumar is the party's candidate for Kutlehar assembly constituency bypoll, Singh had submitted his resignation to the Assembly Speaker so he could join the BJP but the same has not been accepted till date..Justice Jyotsna Rewal Dua heard the civil suits on May 22 and listed the matter for consideration on June 18. “In view of allegations levelled in the application and the plaint, issue notice to the non-applicant, returnable for 18.06.2024, on taking steps within three days,” the Court ordered. In the plaints filed through advocate Anshul Attri, Kumar and Singh have sought damages of ₹1.05 Crore and permanent injunction against the CM. They have also sought ad-interim injunction against Sukhu from making the alleged defamatory statements against them “on public platform and repeating such statements and also from circulating, publishing, posting the statements news items on Facebook account, WhatsApp, Twitter or any other social media platform in any manner and to cause imputation to the applicant in any manner either by himself or through his agents, servants, friends, employees, supports, assignees, family members, etc.".In February this, Kumar and five other Congress MLAs were disqualified soon after they had voted for the BJP candidate in the Lok Sabha polls instead of the Congress candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi. However, they had been disqualified by the Speaker for remaining absent during the budget vote. Singh and two other independent MLAs, who had supported the Congress in government formation in Himachal after the 2022 assembly elections, also voted for the BJP candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls.The trio then decided to resign from the assembly in March this year to formally join BJP and contest the elections afresh..Pertinently, other former Congress MLAs Ravi Thakur, Rajinder Singh, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Chaityana Sharma and Sudhir Sharma have also moved the High Court with similar suits against CM Sukhu. Besides Hoshyar Singh, one other independent MLA Ashish Sharma has also approached the High Court with a suit against Sukhu..[Read Order]