Defamation: Delhi High Court Seeks BJP Leader Tajinder Bagga's Response On Plea By Subramanian Swamy

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought response of BJP leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga in a plea filed by Subramanian Swamy who was summoned in a criminal defamation case filed by the former.

Bagga had filed the defamation complaint over a tweet made by Swamy, claiming it to be false and defamatory in nature.

Justice Ravinder Dudeja sought reply of Bagga within four weeks, including on the aspect of maintainability of the plea.

Two weeks' time has been granted to Swamy for filing rejoinder in the matter. The case will now be heard on August 26.

Swamy filed the plea challenging the summons issued to him by the trial court in the defamation proceedings. He has also sought quashing of the proceedings.

In April 2022, a coordinate bench had stayed the trial court proceedings as well as the summoning order.

About Trial Court Order

While issuing the summons, the Trial Court was of the view that there were sufficient grounds for proceedings against Swamy. Accordingly, the Court had ordered thus:

"In view of allegations made in complaint, testimonies of CW1 to CW4 and material brought on record by them this court is prima facie satisfied that there are sufficient grounds for summoning of respondent as accused qua offence punishable u/s 500 IPC."

According to Bagga, it was alleged that on September 28 last year, Swamy had made the following tweet on his Twitter handle:

"Delhi journalists inform me that before joining BJP, Tajinder Bagga had been jailed many times for petty crimes by the New Delhi Mandir Marg Police Station. True? If so Nadda should know".

It was therefore alleged that said tweet was read by thousands of Swamy's followers which indicated the outreach of said tweet. It was submitted that contents of said tweet were absolutely false and incorrect.

Bagga also claimed that after publication of said tweet, he was summoned by his Party senior, Parveen Shankar Kapoor (Head, Media Relations, Delhi BJP) and was asked to explain the truth and veracity of the tweet after which he refuted the contents of the tweet.

It was submitted on behalf of Bagga that on the same day, he had received a call from Shashi Yadav, Vice ­President of Delhi BJP, who also made enquiry about the truth of the tweet and that Bagga told him that the tweet was absolutely false.

While it was submitted that Bagga had sent a legal notice to Swamy dated October 1, 2021, it was alleged that alleged that after receipt of said legal notice, Swamy again made a tweet on October 2, 2021.

The Court noted that in the present case, Swamy had made a tweet dated 28.09.2021 which was conveyed to public through social media and that the statement was made in the tweet clearly showed that it was alleged that before joining BJP, Bagga was jailed many times for petty crimes and that even the source of information was also mentioned in the tweet.

However, the Court said that as per the testimony of Bagga made on oath, the allegations were stated to be false and were allegedly to harm his reputation.

“Even CW4 (SI Sandeep Kumar, PS Mandir Marg) has also corroborated the version of complainant and in this respect he filed the report Ex.CW4/1. This clearly shows that without verifying the veracity of the statement, respondent made the same and in view of this court, said statement is sufficient to raise the reasonable doubt about the antecedents and character of complainant. CW2 and CW3 made statement before court that tweet dated 28.09.2021 came in their knowledge and they sought explanation or made inquiry regarding the same from complainant," the Court noted.

Accordingly, the Court was of the view that there were sufficient grounds for summoning Swamy as accused qua offence punishable under sec. 500 IPC.

Case Title: DR. SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY v. TAJINDER PAL SINGH BAGGA