The Supreme Court on Monday posted for August 12, 2024, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal plea over a defamation case against him for retweeting a video of a YouTuber Dhruv Rathee in 2018, which had compared the founder and operator of Twitter page ‘I Support Narendra Modi’ of behaving like ‘BJP IT CELL Part-II’.
Adjourning the matter listed today and posting it for hearing on August 12, a bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta also extended the stay on the proceedings of the case before the trial court. The proceedings before a trial court in the defamation case were stayed on February 26, 2024.
The court granted more time to the complainant in the criminal defamation case against Kejriwal to discuss the modalities of an apology that would close the case.
On February 26, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi appearing for Kejriwal had told the court that retweeting allegedly defamatory video was a “mistake.”
The Delhi Chief Minister and the Aam Aadmi Party ‘s national convenor had approached the top court challenging the February 5, 2024, Delhi High Court order refusing to quash the summons issued against him by the trial court. The High Court had said that reposting the alleged libelous content will attract defamation law.
The summons was issued to Kejriwal in a defamation complaint lodged against him for retweeting a video of a YouTuber on social media platform ‘X’.
During the course of the hearing, on February 26, 2024, senior advocate Singhvi, had told the bench: “There is no problem in admitting that this was a mistake if he had known that these would be of the consequences.”
A defamation complaint was filed against Kejriwal for retweeting a video by a YouTuber in 2018 and making remarks describing the founder and operator of a twitter page called ‘I Support Narendra Modi’ of behaving like ‘BJP IT CELL Part-II’. Kejriwal retweeted the tweet which led to the founder moving a defamation complaint against the Chief Minister.
Vikas Sankrityayan, the complainant, has asserted that the YouTube video with the title ‘BJP IT Cell Part II’ circulated by Rathee from Germany contained false and defamatory allegations.