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Synopsis

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal apologised for sharing a fake video against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) IT cell in 2018 to the Supreme Court on Monday.

His counsel, Senior Lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi informed the court that the Aam Aadmi Party stalwart will apologise for reposting a fake video by Youtube influencer Dhruv Rathee. He told the court that if Kejriwal knew the consequences of the repost on the social media platform X, he would have never done it.

Kejriwal is in the top court in a plea challenging a Delhi HC ruling which upheld a trial court order issuing summons against him in defamation case for reposting the video titled “BJP IT Cell Part 2”.

The Court adjourned the case until next week & directed the trial not to proceed further till then and refrained from issuing notice in the special leave petition.
The case was initiated by Vikas Sankrityan, also known as Vikas Pandey, a purported supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and founder of the social media page 'I Support Narendra Modi'. The video by Rathee accused Pandey of being the second-in-command of the BJP IT cell and offering Rs. 50 lakh to someone named Mahavir Prasad to retract allegations of spreading lies and fake news against the ruling party's IT cell.

A Delhi HC bench of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma had upheld a trial court's order summoning Kejriwal, stating that retweeting defamatory content does amount to defamation.

The court said, "At times, it is difficult to erase the reputational injury from public memory, as the tweets may be deleted, but perceptions are difficult to be deleted from the minds of the community."

The judge added, “When millions of people follow a particular person, including the petitioner herein, on social media platforms such as Twitter, anything which is posted by the petitioner on his account is for the public who follow him.”

Case: Arvind Kejriwal v. State (National Capital Territory Of Delhi) & Anr.