A local court on Tuesday granted personal appearance exemption to Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal in an ongoing criminal defamation case, accepting his plea citing urgent political commitments and an upcoming Supreme Court hearing.
Event Context
Additional chief judicial magistrate Sonali Singh allowed the exemption application for the Tuesday hearing in the case titled Rajinder Singh vs Sukhbir Singh Badal, which dates back to January 2017.
Sukhbir’s counsel Rajesh Kumar Rai submitted to the court that as the president of the SAD, his client was required to chair a crucial meeting of party candidates convened ahead of the upcoming Punjab assembly elections.
Furthermore, the court was informed that a special leave petition (SLP) filed by Sukhbir regarding this matter is scheduled for a hearing before the Supreme Court shortly.
Team Analysis
The defense argued that Sukhbir’s absence would severely disrupt the meeting and cause immense inconvenience to party candidates who had already travelled long distances to attend the gathering.
Match Outlook
The application assured the court that the absence was neither wilful nor intentional but due to these compelling circumstances, promising that the SAD chief would attend the next scheduled date of hearing.
The defamation case stems from remarks made in January 2017 by Rajinder Pal Singh, the spokesperson for the religious organisation Akhand Kirtani Jatha. The complainant alleged that Sukhbir defamed the group by publicly describing it as the political face of a terrorist organisation.
source
According to the complaint, Sukhbir made the controversial remarks shortly after Singh met with the then-Delhi chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, at his official residence. After reviewing the submissions, the Chandigarh court accepted the plea and exempted Sukhbir from appearing in person.
