Delhi court dismisses plea seeking prosecution of AAP's Saurabh Bharadwaj for alleged defamation
Delhi court on Saturday dismissed a plea filed by a BJP leader seeking prosecution of AAP's Saurabh Bharadwaj for allegedly making defamatory remarks against him in September 2018. Special judge Vishal Gogne turned down the petition filed by BJP's Suraj Bhan Chauhan against a trial court's February 19 order which rejected his complaint against Bharadwaj, citing delay in filing it.
The limitation period was found to have lapsed on March 16, 2024, the court said while noting the magisterial court had already accorded the permissible liberal construction to the limitation period.
The court finds the conduct of Chauhan to have been «whimsical and opportunistic» in filing the belated defamation complaint, regarding the press conference of the year 2018, only in December 2024 against respondent Saurabh Bharadwaj on the cusp of the Delhi Assembly elections in early 2025, the judge said.
Chauhan had alleged that Bharadwaj defamed him in 2018 by falsely claiming at a press conference that an FIR had been lodged against him.
He claimed before the special judge that he had «inadvertently» filed the complaint against Bharadwaj, a former Delhi minister, before Saket court instead of Rouse Avenue Court which came up for hearing in September 2020.
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He then withdrew the complaint from Saket in November 2022 and the present complaint case was consequently filed at Rouse Avenue Court on December 12, 2024, he said.
The judge, however, said that the magisterial court had already accorded the permissible liberal construction to the limitation period by excluding the long period from January 7, 2020, to July 1, 2022, when the cause of action itself arose on September 20, 2018.
The limitation period was found to have lapsed