Delhi HC to hear on Feb 28 Kejriwal's plea against summons in defamation case

The Delhi High Court on Monday said it will hear on Friday Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other AAP leaders' plea against an order summoning them in a defamation case for their remarks over alleged deletion of voters' names from electoral rolls in the city.

The matter came up before Justice Anu Malhotra and it was listed for February 28.

Kejriwal and three others have challenged a sessions court order which upheld a magisterial court's decision to summon them as accused in the defamation complaint.

They have challenged the magisterial court's March 15, 2019 and sessions court's January 28 this year orders summoning Kejriwal, AAP's Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Gupta, the then MLA Manoj Kumar and party leader Atishi Marlena.

They have sought to quash the trial court's orders and also called for records of the case.

The case was filed by BJP leader Rajeev Babbar, who had moved the petition on behalf of the party's Delhi unit, seeking proceedings against them for "harming" the reputation of BJP by blaming it for the deletion of the names of voters from electoral rolls here.

He had claimed that the AAP leaders, during a press conference held in December 2018, alleged that on the directions of the BJP names of 30 lakh voters from Bania, Poorvanchali and the Muslim community had been deleted by the Election Commission.

In their plea filed before the high court through advocates Mohd Irshad and R Arunadhri Iyer, Kejriwal and others claimed that the trial court failed to appreciate that no offence, whether defamation or otherwise, is made out against them.

The trial courts orders failed to appreciate that the AAP leaders did not make or publish any statement against Babbar or his party as alleged by him.