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Synopsis

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal will be representing Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy before the Delhi High Court in his plea challenging summons issued by a trial court in a defamation complaint filed by BJP leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga over a tweet claiming it to be false and defamatory.

During the hearing on Wednesday, Advocate Satya Sabharwal, on behalf of Swamy, told Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma that as Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal will be arguing the matter, an adjournment was required because the senior counsel was busy before the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court in the Article 370 matter. 

Taking note of the submission, Justice Sharma adjourned the matter to October 4, 2023.

It is to be noted that in July, the High Court Judge had asked Swamy "to satisfy the plea on the maintainability".  Justice Sharma had said that the petitioner instead of invoking the revisional jurisdiction of the Additional Sessions Judge had filed the present petition under Article 226/227 read with Section 482 of the CrPC for setting aside/quashing of the criminal complaint.

“It is a settled law that the summoning order passed by the court of MM/ACMM is amenable to revisional jurisdiction”, the judge had said.

The counsel appearing for Swamy had submitted, “This is an early hearing application. This matter is coming for the final disposal for the 7th time. The respondents have not entered their appearance since April last year, but they have continued to appear before the trial court on every date. They have been served thrice last year and earlier this year as well. My humblest submission before this court is that in light of the respondent's conduct, this petition be disposed of”.

“Such a conduct might not be permitted in any manner”, the counsel had contended.

The court had then ordered, “Let the arguments be addressed on the maintainability of the petition, in the meantime let the respondents be served through the concerned SHO. Interim orders to continue”.

Notably, on April 4, 2022, the court had stayed the summons issued by the trial court.

Bagga has alleged that Swamy, who has over 10 million followers on Twitter, put out a “false and incorrect” tweet accusing him of being jailed after joining the BJP.

The tweet made by Swamy read:

“Delhi journalists inform me that before joining BJP, Tajinder Bagga had been jailed many times for petty crime sin New Delhi Mandir Marg police station. True? If so Nadda should know”

The Magistrate court had summoned Swamy vide order dated March 2, 2022 for offences punishable under Section 500 IPC. Bagga had filed a complaint under Section 190 CrPC read with Section 200 IPC against Swamy.

Case Title: Dr. Subramanian Swamy v. Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga