Supreme Court To Hear AAP Leader's Plea In Arun Jaitley's Defamation Case

The Supreme Court today agreed to hear a plea of AAP leader Raghav Chadha alleging that he has been made to face a criminal defamation case only for retweeting Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's tweet against Union minister Arun Jaitley.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices Amitava Roy and A M Khanwilkar considered the submission of Mr Chadha, the spokesperson of Aam Aadmi Party that his plea be accorded urgent hearing. The plea will be heard on Monday.

Senior advocate Anand Grover, representing Mr Chadha, alleged that the AAP leader has been made to face the defamation case only because he retweeted certain alleged objectionable tweets of Chief Minister Kejriwal.

"This does not constitute (criminal) defamation," Mr Grover said. "We will hear it on Monday," the bench said.

Mr Kejriwal and other AAP leaders -- Raghav Chadha, Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh and Deepak Bajpai -- are facing a criminal defamation suit after they claimed that Mr Jaitley was allegedly involved in corrupt practices when he was the president of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA), a post he had held from 2000 to 2013.

Mr Jaitley, who had denied all the allegations levelled by the AAP leaders in December 2015, had also filed a civil defamation suit seeking Rs. 10 crore damages from CM Kejriwal and the others, claiming they had made "false and defamatory" statements in the case involving DDCA, thereby harming his reputation.