New Delhi: A BJP leader on Thursday moved the Delhi High Court against an order dismissing his defamation case against Chief Minister Atishi.
In his plea, Praveen Shankar Kapoor said while rejecting the defamation complaint and quashing the summons issued by a magisterial court, the special judge went “beyond” the scope of his power in law.
“The Special Judge has ventured into political adventurism akin to a political discourse by attempting to determine who is a bigger/smaller political entity, which was not at all and never be the scope of adjudication in revision proceedings. The Special Judge did not even permit the complainant to have a trial in order to make good his allegations,” the plea alleged.
Seeking the order to be quashed, the plea said there were various legal infirmities in the it.
“The Special Judge (MP/MLA Cases) has transgressed from the criminal complaint and has dealt with issues which are of little significance to the case in hand,” it added.
According to the complaint by the former media head and spokesperson of the Delhi BJP unit, Atishi levelled baseless allegations in a press conference held on January 27, and later on April 2, 2024 against BJP by saying that it was approaching AAP‘s MLAs and offering them bribes to the tune of Rs 20-25 crore for switching sides.
The complaint also arrayed former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal as an accused in the complaint, however, the magisterial court did not find sufficient grounds to proceed against him in the order passed on May 28, 2024.
Atishi however moved the special judge by filing a revision petition to challenge the summons issued to her.
On January 28, Special Judge Vishal Gogne held that the allegations made by Atishi constituted the exercise of the right to freedom of speech concerning political corruption and not defamation.
The special judge said that the pre-summoning evidence did not present adequate grounds to summon Atishi as an accused.
The court said Atishi was in the nature of a “whistleblower” and couldn’t be treated as having acted to defame the BJP and Kapoor’s complaint was “an attempt to defeat criminal investigation and suppress the freedom of speech as well as the right to know”.
“The allegations made by Atishi through the tweet and press conferences are in the nature of disclosing the commission of a criminal offence and merit investigation. Atishi is in the nature of a whistleblower and cannot be treated as having acted to defame the BJP,” said the judge.
