Jaitley, CM settle defamation suits

Union Minister Arun Jaitley and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday settled all their defamation suits which were pending at the High Court and local court here.

The High Court allowed closure of a ₹10-crore civil defamation suit filed by Mr. Jaitley after Mr. Kejriwal and fellow party members tendered apology for their remarks related to the BJP leader’s tenure as the president of the Delhi District Cricket Association.

Kejriwal acquitted

The High Court also closed a second defamation suit filed by Mr. Jaitley against Mr. Kejriwal over use of objectionable word by the Chief Minister’s former lawyer Ram Jethmalani in open court during the proceedings of the first defamation suit.

During the day, a local court here also acquitted Mr. Kejriwal and four others in a criminal defamation case filed by Mr. Jaitley after considering the joint application filed by them to settle the matter.

Mr. Jaitley has withdrawn his defamation suits after accepting the apology tendered by Mr. Kejriwal, Raghav Chadha, Sanjay Singh, Ashutosh and Deepak Bajpai. However the defamation suit against AAP leader Kumar Vishwas will continue as he has not offered to settle the matter.

Mr. Kejriwal and four other AAP leaders had on April 1 individually tendered an “unqualified apology” to Mr. Jaitley.

‘Clearly misinformed’

Mr. Kejriwal said he was “clearly misinformed” and wanted to “unequivocally withdraw all the allegations”. “I offer my sincere apology to you and your family members for any harm caused to your reputation as a consequence of my allegations,” he said in his letter.

Following the apology, Mr. Jaitley and Mr. Kejriwal moved joint applications before the HC and the local court to settle the defamation suits. In the joint application, the Union Minister said he has “accepted the apology” tendered by Mr. Kejriwal and “in view thereof does not wish to further prosecute the aforementioned suit against the said defendants”.

Mr. Kejriwal had apologised to Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, Congress leader Kapil Sibal and Akali Dal’s Bikram Singh Majithia last month.