SC Questioned Whether Re-Tweets Attract Criminal Defamation.

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to urgently hear a plea by AAP leader Raghav Chadha that he was unnecessarily made to face criminal defamation charges for retweeting Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal about Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
In an urgent mentioning before a Bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Mr. Chadha, represented by senior advocate Anand Grover, said his action of retweeting the Delhi Chief Minister and party leader does not constitute the offence of criminal defamation.
“Having heard learned counsel for the parties, we are only inclined to request the learned Single Judge of the High Court to pre-pone the date of hearing and finalise the petition filed under SLP(Crl)Nos.6526-6527/17 2 Section 482 Crl.P.C. on or before 25.09.2017. The parties shall appear before the High Court on 18.09.2017 with a copy of this order and thereafter the matter shall be argued on 19.09.2017.”