HC restrains AAP leaders from making defamatory allegations against L-G Saxena

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday passed an interim injunction that asked the Aam Aadmi Party and its leaders to take down “defamatory” content against Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena and said these have been made in a reckless manner, without any factual verification.
The court asked AAP and its leaders to refrain from posting any defamatory or factually incorrect tweets, re-tweets, hashtags, or videos of press conferences against Lieutenant Governor V.K. Saxena and his family. The court viewed various statements, interviews, press conferences, tweets, re-tweets, and hashtags made by the AAP leaders.
The AAP leaders had accused Saxena of corrupt practices during demonetisation, following which the Delhi LG had approached the court seeking an injunction that restrained the AAP leaders, including Durgesh Pathak, Saurabh Bhardwaj, Atishi Marlena, Sanjay Singh, and Jasmine Shah, from further levelling allegations against him.
“On a prima facie view, the various statements, interviews, press conferences, tweets, re-tweets, and hashtags made by the defendants are per se defamatory.
The same have been made in a reckless manner, without any factual verification, in order to tarnish the reputation of the plaintiff,” the court observed.
The court said it cannot be denied that the reputation of a person is earned over years and that it cannot be tarnished by any other individual in a casual manner.