Delhi HC refuses to stay proceedings in defamation case against BJP’s Sirsa

A single judge bench of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma in its January 24 order, in its prima facie opinion, and without going into the merits of the case, found that the sessions court had “examined in detail, the issue of registration of FIR in relation to letter dated 04.04.2016 and simultaneous proceedings in the present complaint case for commission of offence of defamation.”

The HC said that “at this stage” it does not find “any reasons to stay the proceedings in the present complaint case”.

It was Manjeet Singh GK’s case that the accused persons including Sirsa had been defaming him “regularly through social media and the social media posts, videos and press conferences of the alleged incidents are even available on internet and social media till date and have not been removed by the accused persons”.

Perusing through the material on record, Justice Sharma said that it prima facie appeared the offence of defamation, in this case, was “not a one-time offence committed in the year 2020”.

The HC, further, said that it does not find any infirmity with the observations of the sessions court to stay the proceedings. “In the main petition, where the petitioner has sought setting aside of impugned order and order of summoning, notice has already been issued. However, for the reasons recorded in the preceding paragraphs, this Court is not inclined to stay the proceedings before the learned Trial Court,” the HC said while dismissing Sirsa’s plea for stay.

However, the HC clarified that the observations were only prima facie in nature and shall not be construed as opinion on the merits of the case.

The HC, also took note of Manjeet Singh GK’s complaint wherein he has listed out several statements made by accused persons published in print and electronic media, between 2020-2023 “where the complainant has been addressed as golak chor, kalankit pradhan, etc”.