What if Arvind Kejriwal says he retweeted Dhruv Rathee video by mistake? Supreme Court asks in defamation case

The Supreme Court on Monday asked whether the defamation case filed against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for retweeting a Dhruv Rathee video could be withdrawn if Kejriwal says that he made a mistake in retweeting the YouTube video [Arvind Kejriwal vs State of NCT of Delhi and anr]..A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta posed the query to complainant Vikas Sankrityan alias Vikas Pandey, a self-claimed Prime Minister Narendra Modi fan, who had filed the defamation complaint against Kejriwal.The Court today also orally said that the question of whether Kejriwal's retweet amounted to endorsing defamatory content was a matter of evidence during trial in such cases."On retweet, whether it is an endorsement or you just shared something you saw online - will that not be a matter of evidence in a case of this nature?" Justice Khanna remarked.The matter will be taken up next on March 11. In meanwhile, the trial court has been asked not to hear the defamation case for the time-being. .The Court was hearing a plea by Kejriwal to quash the criminal defamation case filed against him after he retweeted a video uploaded by Dhruv Rathee. In the video, it was alleged that Vikas Pandey (complainant) was the second-in-command of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) IT cell and that he had offered a bribe to a former IT cell member to recant certain allegations against the BJP IT cell..Senior Advocate Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi appeared for Kejriwal today and argued that his client would not mind saying that it was a mistake (to retweet the video) if he had been aware of the consequences.The bench then asked advocate Raghav Awasthi, who appeared for the complainant, whether his client would be willing to withdraw the case if Kejriwal said it was a mistake to retweet the video.During today's hearing, Singhvi also contended that the complainant had suppressed the withdrawal of an earlier complaint in the matter. The Court, however, replied that this was only a technical point."Relist on March 11. In the interim the matter will not be taken up by the trial court," the bench eventually directed..The video in question contained an interview conducted by Dhruv Rathee with Mahavir Prasad, who claimed that Pandey (complainant) had offered ₹50 lakhs to Prasad through a middleman to recant allegations that the BJP IT cell spreads lies and fake news.The interview was uploaded by Rathee on his YouTube channel in two parts, one on March 10, 2018 and another on May 7, 2018, titled "BJP IT Cell Insider Interview" (Parts 1 and 2).The second video was retweeted by Kerjiwal.Subsequently, Vikas Pandey, who runs a social media named ‘I Support Narendra Modi’, filed a defamation complaint against Kejriwal. It was Pandey’s case that Kejriwal re-tweeted the video on May 7, 2018, which contained false and defamatory allegations.He said that Kejriwal is followed by crores of people and by retweeting the video without checking the authenticity of the allegations, the Delhi Chief Minister made it available to a large audience at a national and international level..On February 5 this year, the Delhi High Court refused to quash this criminal defamation case or the trial court's order summoning Kejriwal in the matter. Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma opined that Kejriwal has a significant following on X (formerly Twitter) and he did understand the repercussions of retweeting the allegedly defamatory video..Retweeting can invite defamation: What Delhi High Court said while rejecting plea by Arvind Kejriwal