Senior advocate Ramesh Gupta, representing Delhi Chief Minister Atishi in a defamation case, argued on Monday that the threshold for political defamation is high, as political parties are a subject of public discourse. Gupta concluded his arguments in an appeal against the summons issued in a defamation case against Atishi.
Special CBI Judge Vishal Gogne listed the matter for hearing the arguments of the complainant BJP leader on the appeal. The next date of the hearing is December 16.
Senior advocate Ajay Burman, along with advocate Shoumendu Mukherjee, appeared for complainant Praveen Shankar Kapoor. Senior advocate Ramesh Gupta, along with Mudit Jain, argued that the complainant was not defamed by the appellant and is not a victim of defamation.
It was also argued that the appellant allegedly made a statement against the BJP. If taken as true, the BJP, as an organization, would be the aggrieved party and is entitled to file a complaint. Senior advocate Gupta further argued that while a political party may have lakhs of members, all its members cannot individually file defamation complaints. In such cases, the threshold for establishing defamation is very high.
On November 22, the court stayed proceedings before a Magistrate in the defamation case against Delhi CM Atishi. Delhi CM Atishi had approached the sessions court challenging the summons issued by the Magistrate Court on the defamation complaint filed by BJP leader Praveen Shankar Kapoor.
In the reply, it was stated that the order of summoning was passed after considering the facts, circumstances, and material placed on record. The respondent stated that he represents the BJP as the media head and spokesperson for the Delhi unit in the general public. Therefore, any defamatory post, article, or press conference circulated on social media is equally defamatory for him due to his long association with the party.
BJP leader Praveen Shankar Kapoor had filed a defamation complaint, and the Magistrate at Rouse Avenue Court issued the summons to Atishi on May 28 this year. On July 23, the Rouse Avenue Court granted bail to Atishi after she appeared physically and furnished the bail bond.
Before filing the complaint, Delhi BJP leader Kapoor sent a legal notice to AAP leader Atishi over her claims that the BJP had approached her through a “very close” person to join the party. The notice, sent through advocate Satya Ranjan Swain on behalf of 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.
The notice stated that Atishi deliberately and with malicious intent made statements that were not only false, scandalous, and concocted but also defamatory to harm the reputation of the BJP and its members. The legal notice also mentioned that Atishi’s speech lacked specific information about the source or details of the alleged act by the BJP, making her statement an intentional effort to reflect her own imagination and apprehensions.
The notice requested Atishi to immediately withdraw the said speech and telecast her apology prominently on television and social media.
In response to the allegations, AAP leader and Delhi Minister Atishi had accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of trying to threaten her and her party by using probe agencies. While addressing a press conference, she claimed, “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.”
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Atishi further alleged that in the coming months before the general elections, other leaders of the AAP, including Raghav Chadha and Saurabh Bharadwaj, would also face arrests by central probe agencies. She added, “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.”
