New Delhi, Sep 2 (PTI) The Delhi High Court on Monday refused to quash the proceedings against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other AAP leaders in a defamation case over their remarks about alleged deletion of the names of 30 lakh voters belonging to some communities from electoral rolls here, saying the imputations prima facie lowered down the reputation of BJP.
The high court said the imputations were prima facie “defamatory” with an intention of vilifying the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and gaining undue political mileage.
Justice Anoop Kumar Mendiratta dismissed the plea by Kejriwal and three others — Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) former Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Gupta, Minister of Education Atishi and party leader Manoj Kumar — challenging the defamation proceedings pending before the trial court.
The high court, which had on February 28, 2020 stayed the proceedings, vacated the interim order and asked the parties to appear before the trial court on October 3.
The AAP leaders had challenged a sessions court order which upheld a magisterial court’s decision to summon them as accused in the complaint filed by BJP leader Rajeev Babbar.
The high court said a political party cannot be allowed to engage in mud-slinging and making “mischievous, false and defamatory” imputations against rival political parties.
“Under the constitutional schemes, the citizens have a right to know truthful and correct information in order to form an appropriate opinion about the social processes.
“However, at the same time, a political party cannot be permitted to sponsor the print media for political purposes, thereby slinging mud and making mischievous, false and defamatory imputations on the rival political parties,” the high court said.
It further said, “The imputations in the present case are prima facie defamatory with an intention of vilifying BJP and gaining undue political mileage by attributing that BJP was responsible for deletion of names of about 30 lakh voters belonging to particular communities.” The court said prima facie the tweets and press conferences appear to be malicious and defamatory to the BJP and specifically to its Delhi unit and the office bearers of the party, with serious consequences for having targeted particular communities.
The court said it is of the considered opinion that there is a fine distinction between legitimate criticism of the policies of a political party or the government or an organisation and intentional malicious imputations which may be defamatory.
“The issue highlighted by the petitioners regarding discrepancies in the list of voters prepared and uploaded on the website of Election Commission may have been crucial and critical from the perspective of citizens, but imputing that the exercise of deletion of names of certain communities was at instance of BJP clearly exhibits that the imputations were made with malafides.
“Prima facie, the imputations lower down the reputation of BJP and undermine the trust of the voters in the said party,” it said.
The high court said the summoning order passed by the trial court for the commission of offences under section 499 (offence of defamation) and 500 (punishment for the offence of defamation) of the IPC does not call for any interference.
It said the defence taken by the petitioner AAP leaders that the imputations were bonafide and in public good needs to be proved and established during the course of the trial.
The high court said there can be no second opinion that defamation should not be permitted to be used to stifle criticism or accountability of any government organisation or political party.
The fear of defamation should not be permitted which may be antithetical to any democracy and citizens and parties should be free to express their honest opinions without any fear of retribution and that they could be dragged into litigation, it said.
However, at the same time it needs to be kept in perspective that reputation is a prized attribute of any individual and entity, and also stands protected under Article 21 (right to life and personal liberty) of the Constitution, the court said.
“A misleading and false information in a political arena is likely to sway the public opinion and may give an uncalled for political advantage. In view of the above, imputations or statements should have a factual foundation and should not be used to discredit other political parties and spread a negative image, which may be damaging to the reputation of the concerned party,” it added.
The AAP leaders had sought the quashing of the magisterial court’s March 15, 2019 and sessions court’s January 28, 2020 orders.
Babbar, who moved the defamation complaint on behalf of the party’s Delhi unit, had sought action against them for “harming” the reputation of the BJP by blaming it for the deletion of the names of voters from electoral rolls.
He had claimed that the AAP leaders, during a press conference held in December 2018, alleged that on the directions of the BJP the names of 30 lakh voters from Bania, Poorvanchali and the Muslim community were deleted by the Election Commission.
Kejriwal and others had claimed that the trial court failed to appreciate that no offence, whether of defamation or otherwise, was made out against them.
The trial courts failed to appreciate that the AAP leaders did not make or publish any statement against Babbar or his party as alleged by him, the plea in the high court claimed. PTI SKV SKV SK
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