Delhi HC refuses to entertain plea seeking action against Rahul Gandhi, Kejriwal, Akhilesh for ‘misleading statements’

The court also observed that the individuals who are alleged to have been defamed have the means to approach the court and file appropriate proceedings.

Referring to news reports on media channels and social media platforms, the plea stated that Gandhi, Kejriwal and Yadav made a “misleading and false statement” regarding alleged waiver of loans of Rs 16 crore of a few industrialists by the central government.

The plea sought a direction to the Centre to register a complaint and prosecute the three leaders, and also to direct several social media platforms and the political parties to which these leaders belong to remove these statements from their electronic and social media platforms.

During the hearing, the bench orally stated: “If the industrialists are aggrieved or the politicians are aggrieved, they will take action. Don’t underestimate the mind of the voter. They know who is speaking the truth and who is not. Don’t involve us in this…”

The petitioner, Surjit Singh Yadav, had claimed in his plea, “It is well known that as per Reserve Bank of India (RBI), write off is not same as waive off but writing off loans has been shown by respondent no. 3 to 9 (Gandhi, Yadav, Kejriwal, their political parties and news outlets) as waiving off loans. This deliberate twist to the actual meaning of writing off loans by these respondents had created confusion in the minds of readers/ viewers including in the mind of the petitioner, thereby, resulting in the image of the central government getting downgraded.”

The plea stated that these “factually wrong statements made by such political personalities cast an indelible negative impression” in the minds of the readers or viewers, including the petitioner.