Made mistake by retweeting YouTuber Dhruv Rathee’s video, Kejriwal tells SC

New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday told the Supreme Court that he made a mistake by retweeting an alleged defamatory video posted by YouTuber Dhruv Rathee in relation to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) IT Cell in 2018.

A bench presided over by Justice Sanjiv Khanna was hearing a special leave petition filed by Kejriwal against the refusal of the Delhi High Court to quash the summons issued against him in the criminal defamation case.

The bench, also comprising Justice Dipankar Datta, will take up the matter for hearing on March 11. In the meantime, the apex court ordered that the proceedings pending before the trial court will remain stayed.

On February 5, a bench of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma of the Delhi High Court upheld the summoning order by the Magistrate observing that re-tweeting defamatory content falls under the offence of defamation as per Section 499 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The Magistrate had earlier summoned Kejriwal, deeming the re-tweet prima facie defamatory.

The case was filed by Vikas Pandey (Sankrityayan), the founder of the social media page ‘I Support Narendra Modi’, who claimed that Kejriwal’s retweet of the video tarnished his reputation.

IANS