High Court Dismisses Kejriwal’s Plea to Stay Defamation Case

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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USA: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal faced another setback on Wednesday as the Delhi High Court ruled that the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley can pursue both criminal and civil defamation cases against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader for alleged corruption in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) when Jaitley was heading the sports body for 15 years till December 2013.

Kejriwal’s plea to annul the criminal defamation case pending with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Patiala House Courts, was rejected by Jutice PS Teji a 30-page judgment that explained that “there is no legal impediment to invoke the civil proceedings for defamation as well as initiating the criminal proceedings for defamation simultaneously and continuation of the same.” In his request, Kejriwal remarked that there was no legal provision for two cases for the same offence. Jaitley filed the cases on December 21, 2015, against Kejriwal and five other AAP leaders for making “false and baseless allegations” of corruption against him and his family members in the administration of DDCA. In the case filed, Jaitley is seeking Rs 10 crore as damages from Kejriwal, Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chadha and Deepak Bajpayee for carrying out a malicious campaign against him in the media for political gains.

According to the High Court, the two cases would be heard under different jurisdictions and legal provisions since “the civil suit pending before this court and the complaint filed by the respondent No.1 (Jaitley) before the learned Magistrate are separate and independent proceedings and they can go on side by side.” Justice Teji added that “when two separate statutes provide for separate jurisdiction to try civil and criminal cases in two different courts, the same cannot be said to be binding upon each other or the court subordinate to it.”