The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Vijender Gupta why he was not removing allegedly defamatory tweets against the city’s Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot, PTI reported.
“Why don’t you remove the tweets, your purpose has been achieved,” a bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Talwant Singh said. “What you wanted to do has been achieved. The question is why should these tweets remain? Are you getting any comments on it now? … Your purpose has been served.”
Gupta in his tweets had alleged irregularities in the procurement of 1,000 low-floor buses by the Delhi Transport Corporation in 2021.
Gahlot had then approached the High Court with a defamation suit and had sought Rs 5 crore in damages from Gupta for making “scandalous statements”, reported PTI.
In March, a single judge had refused Gehlot’s plea seeking a restraining order against Gupta to stop him from publishing or tweeting anything related to the procurement of the buses.
The court, at the time, had said that no one should be prevented from expressing their opinions including suspicions or doubts on business transactions of the government unless blatant lies and falsehoods adversely affecting the national interest are disseminated through social media platforms, according to PTI.
On Tuesday, Gahlot’s lawyer urged the court to direct Gupta to direct him to delete his tweets till the pendency of the suit.
“There is absolutely a no-corruption policy [in the government],” Gahlot’s lawyer said. “This is all scandalous. You are not happy with our policy, criticise us but you have no right to do our character assassination.”
The court then asked Gupta’s counsel to file his response. It will now hear the case in January.
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