Does Retweet Of A Defamatory Tweet Amount To Defamation: SC To Decide

The Supreme Court has agreed to examine on Monday a petition filed by Aam Aadmi party (AAP) spokesperson Raghav Chadha, as to whether re-tweeting somebody's allegedly defamatory tweet amounts to defamation.

He also sought a direction to the Delhi High Court for expeditious hearing of the defamation case filed by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Appearing for Chadha, senior advocate Anand Grover mentioned before the three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra for listening of his petition.

Grover sought quashing of the defamation petition against him and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for allegedly using defamatory words in the post.

Chadha said retweeting of the CM's tweet could not amount to defamation.

The CJI's bench decided to hear the matter on Monday.

In the defamation case, besides Kejriwal and Chadha, four other accused are AAP leaders Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh and Deepak Bajpai.

They had accused Arun Jaitley of corruption as the president of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA), a post he held from 2000 to 2013.