Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal will explore settlement with accuser in defamation case

New Delhi: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday told the Supreme Court that he would explore settlement with one Vikas Sankrityayan, on whose complaint a Delhi court had issued summons to the CM for retweeting an alleged defamatory video on BJP IT cell posted by YouTuber Dhruv Rathee in May 2018.
For Kejriwal, senior advocate A M Singhvi said that though the CM had on Feb 26 had admitted to his mistake in retweeting Rathee’s video and assured the court on March 11 that he would explore settlement with Sankrityayan, it could not be initiated as Kejriwal was arrested on March 21 and was in custody till May 10 when SC granted him interim bail.
For the complainant, advocate Raghav Awasthi told a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta that “on the last date of hearing the court had asked for exploration of some settlement between the petitioner and the complainant. I had messaged Mohd Irshad, who has been appearing for Kejriwal before the HC. But I have not heard from them till now.”
The bench said, “It is acknowledged by the other side that they had an issue as petitioner was in custody. Today itself they will get in touch with you.” The bench posted the matter for further hearing on August 12.
The Delhi High Court had rejected Kejriwal’s petition challenging issuance of summons on Sankrityayan’s complaint. On appeal, the SC on Feb 26 had stalled the defamation case proceedings before the trial court and on Monday extended the interim order in this regard.