The Supreme Court has reportedly directed a trial court not to hear until further orders a defamation case against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for retweeting a video on the BJP’s IT cell by YouTuber Dhruv Rathee in 2018, MoneyControl reported.

Kejriwal had moved the top court against a Delhi High Court order which refused to quash the case against him earlier this month. The case is now set to come up for a detailed hearing before the Supreme Court next month.

The case was filed by Vikas Sankrityan alias Vikas Pandey who claims to be a supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and is the founder of social media page ‘I Support Narendra Modi’. The video claimed that Pandey was part of the BJP cell and had offered Rs 50 lakh through a middleman to one Mahavir Prasad to withdraw allegations that the organisation spreads fake news.

Kejriwal was issued summons by the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate in July, 2019. He then moved the Sessions Court and then the High Court to seek relief and quashing of the criminal complaint by Pandey.

Earlier this month, Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma of the Delhi High Court upheld the trial court order summoning Kejriwal. The court said the chief minister had a significant following on social media and did not understand the repercussions of retweeting the video. “Retweeting defamatory content does amount to defamation,” the court said, according to Bar and Bench.

The Aam Aadmi Party national convenor had argued that Pandey had not prosecuted the original author but only Kejriwal which suggested his mala fide intention. His counsel also claimed that there is no evidence to show that Kejriwal retweeted the video with an intention to harm Pandey’s reputation.

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