Senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi, Ranjit Kumar and Sidharth Luthra, appeared for Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and sought the dismissal of Chadha's appeal. Representational Image. DH File photo.
Senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi, Ranjit Kumar and Sidharth Luthra, appeared for Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and sought the dismissal of Chadha's appeal. Representational Image. DH File photo.
The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a plea by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Raghav Chadha challenging his prosecution in a defamation case.
Chadha had retweeted a "defamatory" tweet by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra rejected Chadha's contention that he cannot be prosecuted for retweeting and the offence, if any, has to be dealt under the Information Technology (IT) Act and not under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Senior advocate Anand Grover, representing Chadha, said the issue involved a constitutional question as to whether an act covered under the IT Act can be dealt by a magisterial court with regard to the offence of defamation under the IPC.
Senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi, Ranjit Kumar and Sidharth Luthra, appeared for Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and sought the dismissal of Chadha's appeal.
The Delhi High Court had on September 25 dismissed "as devoid of merit" the plea submitted by Chadha.
The AAP leader had retweeted an objectionable tweet by Kejriwal against Jaitley in the Delhi & District Cricket Association row.
Chandha, along with Kejriwal, party leaders Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh and Deepak Bajpai, were summoned as accused in the criminal defamation case filed by Jaitley.