The Supreme Court on Tuesday (January 27, 2026) adjourned till April 21 the hearing on the petition of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal and former Delhi Chief Minister Atishi, in which they have challenged the order refusing to quash the defamation case filed against them for their alleged comments regarding deletion of names of voters.
Justice M.M. Sundaresh and Justice N. Of. Singh’s bench adjourned the hearing of the case saying that it required a detailed hearing. Senior advocate Meenakshi Arora, appearing for the Aam Aadmi Party leaders, said that the bench had said that the case should be heard on the days of hearing of regular cases (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) and on this basis it requested to adjourn the hearing of the case.
Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for the Central Government, said that the defamation case pertains to a political party, which has authorized the complainant to file the petition on its behalf. On September 30, 2024, the Supreme Court issued a notice to the complainant Rajeev Babbar and stayed the proceedings before the lower court.
The court had said that the legal question is whether the complainant or any political party would fall within the definition of “disgruntled persons” under Section 199 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. However, the Delhi High Court had said that these allegations were prima facie “defamatory” and were made with the intention of defaming the BJP and gaining undue political advantage.
The High Court had rejected the petition filed by Atishi, Kejriwal, former Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Gupta and Aam Aadmi Party leader Manoj Kumar against the defamation proceedings pending in the lower court. The court said that there is no need for any interference with the summoning order passed by the trial court for offenses under sections 499 (defamation) and 500 (punishment for defamation) of the Indian Penal Code. Subsequently, Aam Aadmi Party leaders had challenged the order of the Sessions Court which had upheld the decision of the Magistrate Court in which Babbar was summoned as an accused on his complaint.
Aam Aadmi Party leaders requested to cancel the order of March 15, 2019 of the Magistrate Court and the order of January 28, 2020 of the Sessions Court. Babbar, who filed the defamation complaint on behalf of BJP’s Delhi unit, said in the petition that Aam Aadmi Party leaders have damaged the reputation of BJP by accusing them of removing the names of voters from the voter list, for which action should be taken against them.
He claimed that at a press conference in December 2018, Aam Aadmi Party leaders had alleged that on the instructions of the BJP, the Election Commission removed the names of 30 lakh voters from the Baniya, Purvanchali and Muslim communities. Kejriwal and other accused claimed that the trial court failed to understand that no offense of defamation or any other kind was made out against them.
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