The Delhi High Court on Monday agreed to hear Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s plea challenging a trial court order which had issued summons against him in a defamation case filed by BJP leader Rajiv Babbar.
Kejriwal had allegedly made remarks over deletion of voters’ names from electoral rolls in the city ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
The matter came up before Justice Anu Malhotra. The court will hear the matter on February 28.
Kejriwal and three other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders Sushil Gupta, Manoj Kumar and Atishi Marlena have challenged a sessions court order which upheld a magistrate’s decision to summon them as accused in the defamation complaint.
The magistrate had on March 15 last year issued summons against Kejriwal, Gupta, Kumar and Marlena in the matter.
They have sought qashing of the trial court’s order and also called for records of the case.
Babbar had moved the application on behalf of the party’s Delhi unit, seeking proceedings against the AAP leaders for harming the reputation of BJP by blaming it for the deletion of the names of voters from electoral rolls here.
“The statement of the accused (Arvind Kejriwal) was made with ulterior motives to degrade the reputation of the BJP to gain cheap political mileage in the upcoming elections,” Babbar said in his plea.
Babbar has contended that the voters’ lists were a prerogative of the Election Commission and not that of BJP.