If you reduce public debate to this level, you have to face consequences: SC tells Sisodia on Assam CM criminal defamation case

New Delhi, 12/12: If you reduce public debate to this level, you have to face the consequences,” the Supreme Court said on Monday while hearing a petition by Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia challenging the Gauhati High Court order dismissing his plea for quashing a criminal defamation case filed against him by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

The high court had dismissed Sisodia’s petition seeking the quashing of the defamation case filed by Sarma over allegations of corruption levelled against him by the Delhi deputy CM.

After the apex court showed its disinclination to entertain Sisodia’s plea against the November 4 order of the high court, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader withdrew it.

Sarma had filed a criminal defamation case against Sisodia for making “baseless” corruption allegations against him in connection with the supply of PPE kits at “higher than market rates” to the National Health Mission (NHM) authorities during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.