The Supreme Court on Monday upheld the Delhi High Court order, which had refused to quash summons issued against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Manoj Tiwari by a trial court in a criminal defamation case filed by Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.
However, in a separate verdict on the same case, the Bench of Justice S. Abdul Nazeer and Justice V. Ramasubramanian quashed the defamation case against BJP Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Vijender Gupta.
The Apex Court observed that it took the decisions, after taking in view the fact that the history of the report given by the Law Commission was not properly traced.
In September this year, the top court of the country had reserved its verdict on the petitions filed separately by the BJP leaders.
In 2019, Sisodia had filed a defamation case against both Tiwari and Gupta, after they allegedly accused him of indulging in corruption during the construction of classrooms in government schools of the national capital.
As per Tiwari, the entire case was based on legally inadmissible evidence such as newspaper reports. He also apprised the High Court that the evidence was in the form of CD, which was filed without the requisite compliance of the parameters of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872.
Sisodia had argued that this was not the stage to test the admissibility of evidence.
The High Court, after noting that the allegations had harmed the reputation of Sisodia, issued summons to the BJP leaders.