NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday gave Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal an option to tender an apology or it would examine the legal issue whether merely re-tweeting is a criminal offence of defamation or not.
A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta told senior advocate A M Singhvi, representing Kejriwal, So, if you want to give an apology, you can circulate it without prejudice to your rights and contentions. Let him (complainant) examine.
Otherwise, we will examine the legal issue whether merely re-tweeting is a criminal offence or not, the bench said.
Kejriwal challenged a Delhi High Court order, which upheld the summons issued to him as an accused in the criminal defamation case.
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A counsel, representing the complainant Vikas Sankrityayan, said that the AAP leader may issue an apology on public platforms like microblogging platform X or Instagram.
The bench asked the counsel that he should inform the court what he wants and it can put it to the other side.
We are not going to step into your shoes or the other sides shoes, the bench told the complainants counsel. The apex court told the complainants counsel that his client can give the format of the apology to Kejriwal.
The apex court said its earlier order for the trial court not to proceed in the defamation case till March 11 would continue till the next date of hearing.
The bench fixed the matter for further hearing in the week commencing May 13.
Earlier on February 26, Kejriwal told the court that he made a mistake by retweeting an allegedly defamatory video circulated by YouTuber Dhruv Rathee related to the BJP IT Cell.
The court had asked the complainant whether he wanted to close the matter in view of the petitioner accepting it was a mistake.
The High Court had earlier said that reposting alleged libellous content would attract the defamation law. It had rejected Kejriwal's contention that the trial court erred in not providing any reasons for issuing the summons. The complainant claimed the YouTube video titled BJP IT Cell Part II was circulated by Rathee, who lives in Germany, wherein a number of false and defamatory allegations were made.
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