Supreme Court to Hear Arvind Kejriwal–Atishi Plea on Defamation Summons

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a petition filed by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal and former Delhi Chief Minister Atishi regarding defamation summons issued against them. The case pertains to comments they made alleging that names of certain voters were removed from the electoral rolls.

According to the Supreme Court’s published cause list, the matter is listed before a bench of Justices M.M. Sundresh and N.K. Singh.

Earlier, the apex court had granted Kejriwal and Atishi interim relief by staying further proceedings in a defamation case filed against them by BJP leader Rajiv Babbar. The previous bench, led by the now-retired Justice Hrishikesh Roy, had highlighted the need to examine whether a political party can be considered a “victim” eligible to file a defamation suit. The court had directed notice to be issued with a four-week response timeline, with further proceedings stayed in the meantime.

In September 2024, the Delhi High Court had refused to intervene in the trial court’s summons under Sections 499/500 of the IPC, stating that the AAP leaders’ comments were made with good intentions and in public interest, and would need to be tested during trial.

Justice Anoop Kumar Mandiratta, in a single-judge bench observation, noted that the allegations appeared defamatory at first glance, aiming to malign the BJP and politically exploit claims of voter deletions affecting nearly 30 lakh voters from specific communities. He emphasized that adding or removing names from the electoral rolls is the legal responsibility of the Election Commission, and political parties typically have no role.

The original trial summons was issued in March 2019 based on a complaint by Babbar, alleging that AAP leaders had accused the BJP of directing the deletion of voter names from certain communities. Dissatisfied with the Delhi High Court’s refusal to quash the trial court summons, Kejriwal and Atishi approached the Supreme Court seeking cancellation of the entire proceedings.