New Delhi [India], January 30 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Praveen Shankar Kapoor on Thursday moved to the Delhi High Court seeking quashing of the order of the Rouse Avenue court that had set aside the summons issued to CM Atishi in a Defamation case.
The petition is expected to be heard on February 3.
Chief Minister Atishi had challenged the summons issued to her. Her revision was allowed and defamation case was dismissed.
Kapoor has filed a petition praying quashing of the order of 28.1.2025 passed by the special judge of Rouse Avenue Court of that set aside the order of 28.5.2024 summoning the Delhi CM Atishi Marlena and has dismissed the complaint under Section 200 Cr PC filed by the petitioner.
The petition moved through advocate Satya Ranjan Swain Shoumendu Mukherjee has stated that the Special Judge has gravely erred by substituting his own views in a revision proceeding over the discretion of the Magistrate and thus contravened the solemn principles as expounded in the decision of the Supreme Court in Smt Nagawwa Vs Veeranna Shivalingappa Konjalgi and Ors.
It is further stated that the special judge has ventured into political adventurism akin to a political discourse by attempting to determine who is a bigger or smaller political entity, which was not at all and never be the scope of adjudication in revision proceedings.
The Special Judge did not even permit the Complainant to have a trial in order to make good his allegations.
The Ld. Special Judge’s reliance on the decisions of the Supreme Court of India in S Khushboo vs Kanniammal and Subramaniam Swamy v/s Union of India, is erroneous and an outcome of selective reading.
It is further stated that in the present case, there exists an identifiable group / association / collection of persons namely the Bharatiya Janata Party and legal injury has been effected on its members, more so its office bearers.
The party has membership and the members of the party form an identifiable group, so any defamatory imputation made against the party can make its member fall under the term ‘some person aggrieved.’
Hence, the Special Judge (MP/MLA Cases) has failed to appreciate Explanation II of Section 499 of IPC -which clearly states that making an imputation concerning a collection of persons would tantamount to defamation, the plea said.
It is submitted that an individual’s reputation which has been included in the right to life cannot be given a go-by at the expense of the elevated ideal of “freedom of speech”. This balancing of the rights is also propounded by the Supreme Court.
The plea said that the Special Judge has chosen to undermine the other binding precedents of the Supreme Court which hold that when a well- defined class is defamed, every particular of that class can file a complaint even if the defamatory imputation in question does not mention him by name.
It is also said that the Special Judge (MP/MLA Cases) failed to appreciate that in the press conference, the Respondent deliberately did not disclose the identity of the person who approached her.
Moreover, the details are not even disclosed to the Enquiry Officer of the Crime Branch -who had sent a notice along with a questionnaire to both the accused persons to give their following information.
The complaint made to the Commissioner of Police was to ring loud the hollowness / falsity in the allegations made by respondents.
The Special Judge has completely misread the lack of response by both the Accused Persons as well as the Status Report filed by the Crime Branch.
Kapoor has said in the petition that Order passed by the Special judge needs to be quashed as there are various legal infirmities in the said Order.
The Special Judge (MP/MLA Cases) has transgressed from the criminal complaint and has dealt with issues which are of little significance to the case in hand. Hence the present Petition.
The case stems from allegations made by Atishi, accusing the BJP of attempting to poach AAP MLAs. In his petition, Kapoor has sought the quashing of the trial court’s order and the revival of the original defamation case.
Kapoor argues that the trial court’s decision contains legal flaws, asserting that the Special Judge (MP/MLA Cases) deviated from the criminal complaint and addressed matters irrelevant to the core issue. (ANI)
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