On Monday, the Supreme Court directed a trial court to defer the hearing of a defamation case concerning Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal until March 11. In the hearing, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal conceded to the Supreme Court that he made a mistake by retweeting an allegedly defamatory video associated with the BJP IT Cell in 2018.
The Supreme Court was considering a petition filed by Mr. Kejriwal, contesting a Delhi High Court ruling that upheld summons issued against him as a defendant in a criminal defamation case. This case pertains to his retweeting of an allegedly defamatory video shared by YouTuber Dhruv Rathee in May 2018.
Following this, the Supreme Court queried the complainant involved in the defamation case against the Delhi CM if they were inclined to settle the matter given Kejriwal's acknowledgment of his mistake. Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Kejriwal, said, “I can say this much that I made a mistake by retweeting.” In its judgement dated February 5, the high court had said that reposting alleged libellous content would attract the defamation law.
The high court emphasized the importance of exercising responsibility when retweeting content without proper knowledge, stating that sharing defamatory material should result in legal consequences unless accompanied by a disclaimer.
During the proceedings, the chief minister argued in the high court that his tweet was not aimed at harming the complainant, Vikas Sankrityayan. Kejriwal's petition before the high court contended that the trial court's decision to issue summons lacked justification and displayed a lack of judicial scrutiny.