The Delhi High Court in the case Manjinder Singh Sirsa v. State NCT Of Delhi And Anr observed and has refused to stay the criminal proceedings against BJP leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa in a criminal defamation case filed by former president of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, Manjit Singh GK.
The bench headed by Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma upheld in the case observed and has upheld the order of trial court passed on November 29 last year wherein the court upheld that the summons to be issued to Sirsa by an ACMM court.
The court stated that the prima facie examination of the impugned order and without going much into the merits of the case, lest it affects the case of the petitioner or respondent no. 2 at a later stage before this Court or Trial Court, thus, the said court founds that the learned ASJ has examined in detail, the issue of registration of FIR in relation to letter dated April 04, 2016 and simultaneous proceedings in the present complaint case for commission of offence of defamation, and at this stage, this Court does not find any reasons to stay the proceedings in the present complaint case.
It being the case of Singh that Sirsa, and other accused persons, had been defaming him regularly through social media posts, videos and press conferences which are available on the internet and have not been removed.
It has also been alleged by him before the court that he was called ‘golak chor and kalankit pradhan’ by the accused.
The court while dismissing the plea seeking stay on criminal proceedings stated that the offence of defamation in the case was not a one-time offence committed in 2020 and thus, there was no infirmity with the observations of the trial court.
It has also been clarified by the said court that the observations were only prima facie in nature and shall not be construed as opinion on the merits of the case.
The counsel, Advocates Mr. N. Hariharan, Senior Advocate with Mr. Jasprit Singh Rai, Mr. Yoginder Handoo & Mr. Ashwin Kataria appeared for the Petitioner. The counsel, Mr. Manoj Pant, APP for the State with Inspector Chetan Mandia, EOW; Mr. Mohit Mathur, Senior Advocate with Mr. Naginder Benipal, Mr. Sumit Misra & Mr. Mayank Sharma, Advocates for R-2 represented the respondent.
