Delhi High Court orders AAP leaders to remove posts defaming the Lieutenant Governor

The Delhi High Court has ordered AAP leaders to remove posts defaming Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena as an interim measure. A detailed order is awaited on this.

LG Saxena sought to restrain the ruling Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi, its leaders Atishi Singh, Saurabh Bharadwaj, Durgesh Pathak, Sanjay Singh, and Jasmine Shah, who was appointed by the Government of NCT of Delhi as vice chairperson of the Dialogue and Development Commission, from deleting or removing the alleged false and libellous posts, tweets, or videos circulated and issued on social media.

The AAP and its members claimed that Saxena and his family were involved in a Rs. 1400 crore scam while he was the chairman of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC). The party and its leaders claimed, citing the statements of two former KVIC employees, that as KVIC chairman, his daughter was given a contract, which was against the rules.

“I have passed an ad interim order in favour of plaintiff and a takedown order. You can see detailed directions.” justice Amit Bansal said.

Last Thursday, the court reserved its decision on LG Saxena’s interim application, which sought the removal of defamatory content from social media and other online portals.

The L-G, seeking damages of Rs 2 crore, told the court that the party made these allegations with a carefully planned motive in order to divert public attention away from the action being taken by law enforcement agencies against its senior leaders.