The Supreme Court on Monday directed a Delhi court to suspend proceedings on a plea against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal until further notice. The plea involves Mr Kejriwal's retweet of an allegedly defamatory video shared by YouTuber Dhruv Rathee in May 2018.
During the hearing, Mr Kejriwal admitted to the Supreme Court that he made a mistake by retweeting an allegedly defamatory video associated with the BJP IT Cell.
A bench comprising Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta presided over the matter and ordered a stay on the trial court's proceedings. The court scheduled the matter for further hearing on March 11.
About The Case:
CM Arvind Kejriwal is charged with defamation under Section 499 IPC for retweeting a post made by YouTuber Dhruv Rathee on Twitter.
The Delhi High Court on February 5 declined to dismiss the criminal defamation case against Mr Kejriwal. The court stated that engaging in online interactions on microblogging platform X and sharing posts through retweeting attracts the liability for the offence of defamation.
The court held that retweeting the false accusation on social media and maintaining one's social and political position are important factors to consider.
The court also held that if a user with “negligible followers” or “with limited influence” retweets defamatory content, this may not even fall under the definition of defamation where because of the individual's limited reach, defamatory information is unlikely to gain attraction among responsible members of society.
