Delhi HC rejects Kejriwal’s plea to stay defamation case against him

Jaitley filed a criminal defamation complaint against Kejriwal and five AAP leaders in the DDCA controversy.

By: PTI News Agency |
October 19, 2016 6:45 pm

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday dismissed Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s plea to suspend the defamation case filed against him by union finance minister Arun Jaitley. “The request of the petitioner to adjourn the court proceedings before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) is rejected, being devoid of merit and the same is culminated into dismissal of the present petition,” Justice P S Teji said.

“Nothing have been brought before this court to the effect that continuation of criminal proceedings is abuse of the process of law before the CMM and any order is required by this court to secure the ends of justice. “Thus, this court is of the view that the order of the CMM, dated May 19, 2016 continuing with the proceedings is free from perversity, impropriety, illegality and non- sustainability which compelled this court to exercise the inherent jurisdiction under Section 482 Cr PC,” the court said.

In his plea, Kejriwal contended that there are two cases–one civil and the other criminal–filed against AAP leaders on the same allegations and the trial court should have stayed the proceedings in the matter, but it had declined. Jaitley had filed a criminal defamation complaint alleging Kejriwal and five AAP leaders–Raghav Chadha, Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh and Deepak Bajpai–had defamed him in the Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA) controversy.

On April 7, the trial court had granted bail to Kejriwal and others in the case after they had appeared before it. Jaitley had on December 21, 2015, filed the criminal defamation case against the AAP leaders and sought their prosecution for offences that entail a punishment of up to two years in jail. Besides the criminal defamation case, Jaitley has also filed a civil defamation suit in the High Court seeking Rs 10 crore in damages from Kejriwal and the five AAP leaders for issuing allegedly false and defamatory statements against him and his family in connection with alleged irregularities in DDCA when he was its president.