Delhi HC refuses to quash summons issued to Kejriwal in YoutTube video defamation case
Hindustan TimesThe ramifications are far more than a whisper when a public figure tweets or retweets, the Delhi high court said on Monday as it refused to quash summons issued to chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in a defamation suit filed against him for reposting an allegedly defamatory video by YouTuber Dhruv Rathee. The audience therefore becomes a citizenry at large whose opinion may be influenced by the information they consume, including the defamatory statement published on social media,” a bench of justice Swarana Kanta Sharma said. 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.” Kejriwal had approached the high court challenging the summons issued to him in 2019 by the magistrate as well as sessions judge, who had rejected his revision against the trial court’s order, in the defamation case filed by Vikas Sanskrityanan, founder of social media page ‘I Support Narendra Modi’. Sanskrityanan alleged in his complaint that the AAP leader had re-tweeted a defamatory video titled ‘BJP IT Cell Part II’, which was circulated by YouTuber Dhruv Rathee, who lives abroad.