Delhi HC Reserves Order on Kapil Mishra’s Plea for Copies of Supplementary Chargesheet in 2020 Tweets Case
The Delhi High Court on Thursday, August 29, 2025, reserved its order on an application filed by Delhi Law Minister and BJP leader Kapil Mishra, who sought copies of certain documents connected to the supplementary chargesheet filed before a trial court in a case against him over his controversial 2020 tweets, in which he referred to Shaheen Bagh as a “mini Pakistan” and framed the Delhi Assembly elections as a battle between “India and Pakistan.”
The matter was heard by a bench led by Justice Ravinder Dudeja, before whom Mishra challenged a Sessions Court order that had dismissed his plea against the summons issued by a Magisterial Court in the case.
The High Court had in March 2025, declined to stay the trial court proceedings.
The case stems from an FIR lodged in 2020 on a complaint by the Returning Officer’s office, which alleged that Mishra’s tweets violated the Model Code of Conduct and provisions of the Representation of the People Act during the Assembly polls.
Earlier this year, a Delhi Court pulled up the city police for failing to adequately investigate Mishra’s tweets. On March 7, 2025, the Sessions Court upheld the trial court’s decision to take cognisance against him for promoting enmity between classes in connection with the Assembly elections. Special Judge Jitendra Singh observed: “The word ‘Pakistan’ is very skillfully weaved by the revisionist in his alleged statements to spew hatred, careless to communal polarisation that may ensue in the election campaign, only to garner votes… One cannot be allowed to do something that has been prohibited by Section 125 of the RP Act, indirectly, if he cannot do it directly.”
In June 2023, a Magisterial Court had summoned Mishra, a decision later upheld by a Special Judge who dismissed his revision plea. The court also noted that Mishra’s reference to “Pakistan” was a deliberate attempt to provoke communal tensions and polarise voters. Rejecting Mishra’s defence that he had referred only to a “country” and not a community, the court said such terminology is often used in “common parlance” to target a particular religious group.
Mishra, a vocal critic of the Shaheen Bagh anti-CAA protests, continues to face trial in connection with these remarks.
Case Title: Kapil Mishra v. State of NCT of Delhi
Hearing Date: August 28, 2025
Bench: Justice Ravinder Dudeja