New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Delhi high court to decide on chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s plea seeking quashing of criminal defamation case against him.
A Bench of Justices A.K. Sikri and R. Banumathi remitted the matter back to the Delhi high court but made it clear that there won’t be any stay of lower court proceedings in this case against Arvind Kejriwal and AAP leaders Manish Sisodia, Shazia Ilmi and advocate Prashant Bhushan. The defamation case was filed against them by advocate Amit Sibal, son of senior advocate and former communications minister Kapil Sibal.
On January 16, 2014, the Delhi high court had refused to quash defamation proceedings against AAP leaders but asked the trial court to consider their plea for discharge. Challenging the order, petitioner Amit Sibal contended that the high court could not confer the power of discharge on a magistrate in a triable case instituted on a private complaint.
