On December 20, the Delhi High Court's division bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Talwant Singh sought the position of BJP MLA Vijender Gupta on the removal of three allegedly defamatory tweets he made against Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot in the latter's defamation suit over the purchase of 1,000 low-floor DTC buses. The court instructed Gupta's counsel to seek directions on the issue and scheduled the case for hearing on January 16.

"You take instructions. Your purpose is served now. You'll have to establish before the court of competent jurisdiction. These tweets have served the purpose. Where is the need for us to go in this?" the court told Gupta's counsel. "We are reminded of an anecdote. When Mrs. Gandhi was the Prime Minister, Mr. Natwar Singh was going to sworn in as foreign minister. The evening previous to the day when he was going to be sworn in, he visited the PM and asked her how should he be attired. Reportedly, she said 'because you're appointed as minister, come dressed in a thick skin."

"Even if the fact-finding committee says so, assuming the committee says so….we're at the stage where you're making allegations. Possibly, there will be a registration of FIR, possibly there may be some prosecution for whatever allegations you've made. You'll establish or not establish it at the trial. Why should the tweets remain?" Justice Mridul told Gupta's counsel.

The court was hearing an appeal filed by the AAP MLA against a single judge's refusal to confer him a temporary injunction in a defamation suit in March of this year.

Gupta claimed that Gahlot committed corruption by awarding the bid for DTC bus upkeep to Tata Motors and JBM Auto Ltd despite being aware of all terms and conditions of the tender and opposed it only after it was awarded. Following this, Gahlot filed a lawsuit against Gupta for allegedly defaming him and causing him to lose his reputation. A mandatory injunction was also sought to compel the removal of all defamatory posts about him on Twitter and Facebook.

Case Title: Kailash Gahlot v. Vijender Gupta & Ors
Citation: CS(OS) 403/2021, I.A. Nos.10839/2021, 10842/2021 & 12535/2021