The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s plea seeking a stay on trial court proceedings in a criminal defamation case filed by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
A Bench of Justices PC Ghose and UU Lalit, while dismissing the plea, said that under the Evidence Act, a judgement given in a civil proceeding is not binding on the criminal case.
“We can’t interfere with the judgements of the Delhi High Court and the trial court. The petition is dismissed,” the bench said.
Senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, appearing for Kejriwal, said that if the High Court pronounces a judgement in the civil proceedings, then the subordinate court would have to follow the law in the case, which is based on the same facts and circumstances.
He sought a stay on the criminal defamation case filed by Jaitley against Kejriwal, while the civil proceedings before the High Court continues.
In October, the Delhi High Court had also dismissed Kejriwal’s plea seeking the stay in the criminal case, saying, there was no “illegality” in its continuation simultaneously with a civil defamation suit in the High Court.
Besides a civil defamation suit in the High Court, Jaitley had also filed a criminal defamation complaint in a lower court alleging that Kejriwal and five AAP leaders — Raghav Chadha, Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh and Deepak Bajpai — had defamed him in the Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA) controversy.