Gauhati HC Refuses To Quash Criminal Defamation Case Against Manish Sisodia Filed by Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma

A Single Judge Bench of the Gauhati High Court comprising Justice Kalyan Rai Surana has refused Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister, Manish Sisodia’s, plea to quash the criminal defamation case filed against him by the Assam Chief Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma.

The criminal defamation case against the Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia was filed by Assam CM Himanta Biswa, after Manish Sisodia, in a press conference had made a defamatory statement against him alleging that he was indulging in corruption. The said video of the press conference was uploaded on the Youtube channel of the Aam Aadmi Party with the title “Assam ke BJP CM ke bhrastachar ka yeh hai kacha chittha.”

In the video, it was alleged that Himanta Biswa gave government contracts to her wife’s company for procuring PPE kits. Further, the said PPE kits were allegedly purchased from her wife’s company at Rs. 990 per kit, however, the same were purchased from others for Rs. 600 per kit.

After the Chief Judicial Magistrate recorded the statements of Himanta Biswa and two other witnesses, the court found sufficient grounds to take cognizance of the case and it issued summon to Manish Sisodia. The Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi then approached the High Court for quashing the defamation case. 

The counsel for Manish Sisodia argued before the court that the petitioner is a public servant and no sanction was procured under Section 197 CrPC. He also argued that statements made in the press conferences are “exceptions” contained in Section 499 of the IPC because it was for the public good and to caution the public. Further, it was submitted before the court that the respondent’s wife supplied kits without raising bills while taking benefit of Corporate Social Responsibility and caused undue enrichment to themselves. The counsel concluded his arguments by stating that the petitioner, in the press conference had only reproduced the material that was available on the websites under the name of “The Wire” and “The Cross Current”.

The counsel for Himanta Biswa argued that his wife had supplied PPE kits to the government under Corporate Social Responsibility and therefore there should be no question of the Government of Assam to pay any money to her and for the same reasons bills were not issued. He also submitted that Biswa's wife had made the clarification on her Twitter handle, which was retweeted by Himanta Biswa, however, Sisodia suppressed that fact and defamed him.

The High Court rejected the argument of Sisodia that he was performing a government act in his official capacity and said:

“The petitioner has not made any attempt to show from the law in force that it is the official duty of the Deputy Chief Minister of the NCT of Delhi to call a Press Conference under the aegis and/or banner of Aam Aadmi Party and make statement about alleged corrupt practice committed by the Chief Minister of the State of Assam, while he was holding office of the Minister for Health. In other words, the petitioner has not been able to show that by holding press conference on 04.06.2020, he was performing a Government act/ task or that he was performing a function of a public servant”.

The High Court also rejected the argument for grant of sanction under Section 197 while stating, “The petitioner is not a Government servant in the State of Assam either for the Government of Assam or Central Government servant in the State of Assam. No material has been shown that a Government servant of another State has a public duty to hold a press conference in political party office to comment on actions of the Chief Minister of another State, i.e. State of Assam in this case. At least, nothing contained in Section 197 Cr.P.C. or the Assam amendment to the said provisions discloses so.”

The court while refusing to quash the case registered against the Deputy CM of Delhi said that he was not able to show that the content of the press conference was more than what was stated in the news reports. The court said,

“The learned counsel for the petitioner has not been able to show that the contents of the statement made by the petitioner in his press conference was not more than the contents of “The Wire” and “The Cross Current”, or that no “sugar and spice” was added by the petitioner, or that there was no attempt to sensationalize the contents of “The Wire” and “The Cross Current”.

Case Title: Manish Sisodia vs State of Assam