Reposting a “defamatory” video was a mistake. Arvind Kejriwal to the Supreme Court
On Monday, the Supreme Court stayed the prosecution of a defamation case against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, after the latter “admitted his mistake” and retweeted a YouTube video criticizing the BJP’s IT unit.
Retweeting an allegedly derogatory film that YouTuber Dhruv Rathee was circulating, Kejriwal claimed to have erred in his post.
A bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna asked the complainant whether he wanted to settle the case in light of the chief minister’s apologies, without providing notice in response to Kejriwal’s plea contesting a Delhi High Court judgment maintaining the summons issued to him as an accused in the criminal defamation case.
The trial court was instructed by the Bench to postpone taking up Kejriwal’s defamation lawsuit until March 11. The directive was issued after the admission of error by senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi on behalf of the Delhi Chief Minister. Replying to a tweet that Kejriwal had posted, Singhvi informed the Bench, “I can say this much: I made a mistake.”
On February 5, the high court declared that reposting purportedly defamatory information would be subject to the defamation statute. Retweeting material of which one is unaware requires a feeling of responsibility. It further said that retweeting defamatory content invites criminal, civil, and tort action if the individual doing so fails to provide a disclaimer.
Kejriwal had argued before the high court that the trial court erred in not providing any justification for issuing the summons and that the orders were “ex-facie” devoid of judicial application of mind. He further claimed that the trial court overlooked the fact that his tweet was not intended to harm the complainant, Vikas Sankrityayan, or make him think less of him.
