Supreme Court stays defamation case against Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi CM Atishi

The Supreme Court on Monday stayed proceedings in a criminal defamation case filed against Delhi Chief Minister (CM) Atishi and former CM Arvind Kejriwal over remarks on alleged deletion of voters' names from electoral rolls in the national capital [Arvind Kejriwal and anr v State of NCT of Delhi and anr]..A Bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and SVN Bhatti sought the response of the Delhi Police and the complainant, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Rajiv Babbar, in the matter, within four weeks.In the interim, the criminal proceedings against the two Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders were stayed..The Delhi High Court had recently rejected a plea filed by AAP leaders seeking quashing of the case, This led to the appeal by Kejriwal and Atishi before the Supreme Court..Notably, in it order, the Supreme Court stressed the importance of free speech, observing,"In a democratic nation like India, freedom of speech is a fundamental right guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. Therefore, a defamatory complaint under Section 499 of the IPC must necessarily be made by an ‘aggrieved person’ under Section 199 of the Cr.P.C. As such, the threshold has to be higher than usual, especially in context of public discourse amongst political personalities and parties.".Babbar filed a criminal defamation case against Kejriwal, Atishi and AAP leaders Sushil Kumar Gupta and Manoj Kumar. Babbar told the Court that the AAP leaders held a press conference in December 2018 where they alleged that on the directions of the BJP, names of around 30 lakh voters from Bania, Poorvanchali and the Muslim community had been deleted by the Election Commission from Delhi's voters list. Babbar said that the statement harmed his party's reputation. A Magistrate issued summons to Kejriwal and others in the case in March 2019. The AAP leaders moved the Sessions Court against the same but that plea was rejected. Kejriwal, Atishi and others then moved the High Court which too upheld the criminal proceedings.The High Court held that in a democracy citizens have the right to know truthful and correct information but mud-slinging by political parties cannot be allowed.AAP's allegations against the BJP are defamatory and were made to vilify the BJP and gain undue political mileage, it added.This led to the instant plea by the two AAP leaders before the apex court..Today, Senior Advocate Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi with Advocates Vivek Jain, Mohh Irshad, Karan Sharma, Sadiq Noor and Rajat Jain appeared for Kejriwal and Atishi.Senior Advocate Sonia Mathur with Advocates Neeraj, Piyush Beriwa, Nikhil Chandra Jaiswal and Shubhi Bhardwaj appeared for Babbar on caveat..[Read order]