Delhi HC to hear Arvind Kejriwal's plea challenging summon in defamation case on Feb 28

The Delhi High Court on Monday said that it will hear on February 28, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's plea challenging a trial court order issuing summons against him in a defamation case filed by BJP leader Rajiv Babbar.

Kejriwal has challenged the magistrate court order dated March 15, 2019, which issued summons against Kejriwal and three other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders Sushil Gupta, Manoj Kumar and Atishi Marlena in the matter.

Kejriwal had earlier challenged the order in a session court, which had on January 28, dismissed the appeal.

Thereafter, Kejriwal moved the Delhi High Court saying that defamation complaint was not maintainable, given that it is vague and does not disclose who is the "person aggrieved" maintaining the complaint.

The petitioner further submitted that the BJP is not an entity capable of maintaining a complaint of defamation.

Kejriwal also said that no defamation case is made out against him and sought to call for all records related to the case from the trial court and quashing of orders dated March 15, 2019, and January 28.

The trial court had observed that the allegations made by Kejriwal and others are prima facie defamatory and refer to the BJP.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Delhi BJP leader Rajiv Babbar claiming that the Chief Minister had stated that a total 30 lakh names of electors belonging to 'Baniya', Muslims and others communities were allegedly deleted from the voters' lists by the BJP.

Babbar has contended that the voters' lists were a prerogative of the Election Commission and not that of the BJP.