New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Tuesday put on hold the proceedings in a criminal defamation complaint against the chief minister Arvind Kejriwal for re-tweeting an allegedly defamatory video circulated by YouTuber Dhruv Rathee in May 2018.
Justice Suresh Kait issued notices to the state and the complainant, seeking their stand on a plea by Mr Kejriwal challenging the summons issued to him in the case by a trial court.
Apart from seeking quashing of the summons, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader has also challenged the sessions court’s decision to dismiss his appeal against a magisterial court’s order summoning him as an accused in the case.
Senior advocate Vikas Pahwa and advocate Mohammad Irshad, appearing for Mr Kejriwal, told the court that over 4,000 people had re-tweeted Mr Rathee’s tweet and more than 6,000 had liked it, but the complainant had not made any of them an accused in the case.
The high court noted the submission and also, the fact that even Mr Rathee, who posted the original tweet, was not an accused in the complaint and said “till further orders, there shall be a stay on the proceedings against the petitioner (Kejriwal)” in the criminal defamation case.
With the direction, the high court listed the matter for further hearing on January 31.
The magisterial court had summoned Mr Kejriwal to appear before it on August 7, after a criminal complaint by Vikas Sankrityayan, the founder of social media page “I Support Narendra Modi”, alleged that the AAP leader had re-tweeted the defamatory video.
