Supreme Court extends stay on defamation proceedings against Delhi CM
New Delhi, May 13
The Supreme Court on Monday extended the stay on the defamation proceedings against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and gave time to the parties to explore an amicable settlement.
Kejriwal has challenged a Delhi High Court order upholding the summons issued to him in a criminal defamation case for retweeting an alleged defamatory video circulated by YouTuber Dhruv Rathee in May 2018.
A Bench led by Justice Sanjiv Khanna extended the interim stay till further orders after senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi submitted on behalf of Kejriwal that since the last hearing on March 11, the parties could not get in touch to work out a settlement even as complainant Vikas Sankrityayan’s counsel said nobody contacted him after the last hearing.
Noting that Kejriwal’s side will now get in touch with the complainant, the Bench posted the matter for further hearing in August.
The Supreme Court on February 26 had restrained the trial court from going ahead with a defamation case against the Delhi Chief Minister for re-tweeting a YouTube video against the BJP’s IT cell after the CM said he made a mistake by re-tweeting an alleged defamatory video circulated by YouTuber Dhruv Rathee.
