A Delhi court on Wednesday issued summons to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and five other AAP leaders in connection with a defamation case filed by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and asked to appear before the court on April 7.
The court while issuing summoning notices observed that the statements made by the accused are defamatory in nature.
Metropolitan Magistrate Sumit Dass issued summons to Delhi CM, Raghav Chadha, Deepak Bajpai, Ashutosh, Kumar Vishwas and Sanjay Singh for the alleged offences under sections 500(criminal defamation) and 34(common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The court in its order stated, “Voluminous evidence is led on record to buttress the charge… to call a person as corrupt/dishonest, one who indulges in financial bungling and having embezzeled off money to the tune of Rs57 crore, calling him, drawing parallels with person who is involved in criminal case, casting aspersions about his integrity, are not legitimate acts of criticism but downright and per se defamatory in nature. The allegations are not only insulting but jeeringly taunting and provocative.”
“The language of public discourse ought to be within the confines of decency, if it transgresses those limits and becomes insulting, offensive and laced with innuendos, same may amount to defamation and become actionable at the end of the person aggrieved,” the court stated.
The court observed that the statements made by the complainant witnesses in this case have recorded that while Arun Jaitley was the president of DDCA, the accounts were duly audited by AGM submitted with taxation authorities and the fact that he has no association with 21st Century media PVT ltd, also assists him on this aspects — points out about the falsity of the allegations leveled by the respondents.
“However, reading them as a whole manifests a well orchestrated campaign and respondents appeared to have acted in unison. The identity in the content, proximity in terms of timing of their statements suggests a commonality of intent, shared purpose and active participation,” it said.
The summoning order has come by the court after Jaitley filed a criminal defamation complaint stating that Kejriwal and five others had defamed him in the Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA) controversy by social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.