Court reserves order on CM Atishi's appeal against summons

Special Judge Vishal Gogne, after hearing rebuttal arguments by senior advocate Ramesh Gupta, reserved the order on appeal for January 28.

Earlier on December 3, 2024, senior advocate Ramesh Gupta, counsel for CM Atishi Marlena, had argued that the threshold is high in political defamation as political parties are subjects of public discourse.

Thereafter, the court heard the arguments of senior advocate Ajay Burman, counsel. for complainant Praveen Shankar Kapoor. Advocate Shoumendu Mukherjee has also appeared for Kapoor.

Senior advocate Ramesh Gupta, along with Mudit Jain, argued that the appellant did not defame the complainant.

It was argued that, as it is alleged, the appellant made a statement against the BJP. If it is taken to be true, the BJP is a victim or aggrieved; it can file a complaint.

The senior advocate also argued that a political party may have lakhs of members, but all cannot file a defamation complaint. In this case, the threshold is very high.

On November 22, 2024, the court had stayed the proceedings before a magistrate in the matter.

Delhi CM had approached the sessions court against the summons issued by the magistrate court on the defamation complaint filed by BJP leader Praveen Shankar Kapoor.

In the reply on the appeal, it was stated that the order of summoning was passed after considering the facts, circumstances and material placed on record.

It was also stated by the respondent that he represents the BJP as media head and spokesperson of the Delhi Unit in the general public. Therefore, any defamatory post, article, or press conference circulated in social media is equally defamatory for him due to his long association with the party.

BJP leader Praveen Shankar Kapoor filed a defamation complaint. The magistrate at Rouse Avenue court issued the summons to Atishi Marlena on May 28 last year.

A notice sent by Delhi BJP leader Praveen Shankar Kapoor stated that on April 2, 2024, Atishi held a press conference and claimed that she was approached by the BJP to join the party.

Notice sent through Advocate Satya Ranjan Swain on behalf of Praveen Shankar Kapoor had stated that Atishi deliberately and with malicious intent made statements that are not only false, scandalous, concocted and illusionary but also defamatory to harm the reputation of the BJP but also of its members.

In the entire speech, she neither revealed specific information about the source of information nor did she give any details about the act of the BJP. Devoid of any specifics, your statement is an intentional endeavour to reflect your imagination and apprehension, stated the legal notice.

The notice requested that Atishi immediately withdraw the said speech and telecast your apology prominently on your television and social media.

AAP leader and Delhi minister Atishi had alleged that she was approached by the Bharatiya Janata Party to join them or else she'd be arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in the coming days.

While addressing a press conference here, the AAP leader said, "The BJP, through one of my close aides, approached me to join their party to save my political career, and if I do not join the BJP, then in the coming month, I will be arrested by the ED." The AAP leader accused the BJP-led Centre of trying to threaten the party by using probe agencies.

"I want to tell the BJP that we will not be scared of you. We are the soldiers of Arvind Kejriwal. We are aides of Bhagat Singh. We will continue to save the Constitution and work to give the people a better life under the leadership of Arvind Kejriwal," she said.

She further alleged that in the coming two months before the general elections, the central probe agency will arrest a few more leaders, including Raghav Chadha and Saurabh Bharadwaj. (ANI)