A Delhi court has issued non-bailable warrants against Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, deputy CM Manish Sisodia and former AAP leader Yogendra Yadav, as they failed to appear in a defamation case. Rouse Avenue court in Delhi has issued the non-bailable warrant against the three in a defamation suit filed by lawyer Surender Sharma.
Delhi: Rouse Avenue court issued non-bailable warrants against CM Arvind Kejriwal, Deputy CM Manish Sisodia and National president of Swaraj India Yogendra Yadav after they didn’t appear in a defamation case filed by a lawyer Surender Sharma.
— ANI (@ANI) April 23, 2019
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal issued the warrants against Aam Aadmi Party leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia, and Swaraj India leader Yogendra Yadav, after noting that nobody was present from their side during the hearing on the complaint filed by advocate Surender Kumar Sharma. The case was posted for Wednesday by the court.
The case was filed by Surender Sharma in 2013, alleging that the AAP leaders had approved his name as a party candidate but later defamed him and also denied him the ticket for election. He had claimed that articles published in leading newspapers carried “defamatory, unlawful and derogatory words used by the accused persons”, which have lowered his reputation in the Bar and the society. The case was stayed along with several other defamation cases filed at that time as the Supreme Court was hearing a plea and others questioning the constitutional validity of criminal defamation suits. The plea against the validity of criminal defamation filed by Arvind Kejriwal, Subramanian Swamy and Rahul Gandhi was dismissed by the Supreme Court in May 2016, after which the proceedings in stayed defamation cases were re-started.
The AAP leaders had filed a petition in the Delhi High court to stay the case, but the High Court had refused to do so in March 2017, saying let the proceedings in trial court go on. After that, the case filed by Sharma was put on trial in August 2017 by the lower court.
