A Delhi court on Tuesday afternoon junked a BJP leader's defamation complaint against Delhi Chief Minister Atishi, who had been summoned in connection with the charges.
The city's Rouse Avenue court, as it quashed the summons, noted that the AAP leader's comment had been made against the opposition party as a whole and not individual members of the organisation.
The court also noted the threshold for proof is always high in political defamation, as it involves freedom of speech, and the summons is, therefore, liable to be set aside as it suffered material error and infirmity.
In April last year Atishi - then a minister in former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's cabinet -alleged she, and other AAP leaders, had been approached by individuals linked to the BJP, demanding she join the party or face 'arrest' by the Enforcement Directorate within a month.
A case was subsequently filed by the BJP's Praveen Shankar Kapoor.
Insisting the claims by Atishi and other AAP leaders against the BJP were false, Mr Kapoor complained that none of them had furnished any material to substantiate their allegations.
The Rouse Avenue Court was responding to an earlier order - passed by Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Tanya Bamniyal - that had summoned Atishi in connection with the complaint.
The court had then granted Atishi bail on a bond of Rs 20,000.
READ | Delhi Court Grants Bail To AAP Minister Atishi In Defamation Case
It had also excused Mr Kejriwal in the same complaint.
This was a month before Delhi was to vote in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
The Rouse Avenue Court's ruling will come as relief for the AAP and the Delhi Chief Minister, as each preps for next week's Delhi election; Atishi is standing for re-election from her Kalkaji seat.
Furore over Atishi's 'join BJP or...' claim came as senior AAP leaders, including Mr Kejriwal and his former deputy, Manish Sisodia, were in jail on corruption charges linked to the alleged Delhi liquor excise policy scam. Atishi, in that time (when Mr Kejriwal was in jail), was one of the party's two most high-profile leaders, the other being Greater Kailash MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj.
Since then Atishi has risen to replace Mr Kejriwal in the top post (after he was forced to stand down over his alleged role in the liquor policy scam.
NDTV is now available on WhatsApp channels. Click on the link to get all the latest updates from NDTV on your chat.
