Delhi Court Dismisses Defamation Case Against Nirmala Sitharaman

A Delhi court on Wednesday declined to take cognizance of a defamation case moved against Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman by AAP leader Somnath Bharti’s wife Lipika Mitra. In the defamation suit, Mitra has alleged that Sitharaman made “defamatory, false, and malicious” statements about her husband, which were aired widely on news platforms on TV and YouTube, with the alleged objective of “tarnishing his reputation and damaging his electoral prospects” during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Hearing the matter, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Paras Dalal of Rouse Avenue Court said, “From the entire material on record, this court is reminded of a rather unusual word, which can describe the present complaint as well as the entire proceedings. The word is ‘floccinaucinihilipilification’, which implies ‘something valueless or worthless’. The present complaint is nothing but the word stated above, wherein a valueless or worthless material has been stretched too long.” “…this court fails to find that the necessary ingredients of criminal defamation are prima facie not made out. The press conference and averments made by the respondents is nothing more than political discourse amongst rival and competing parties,” it added. The case pertains to a press conference that took place on May 17, 2024, in which Sitharaman allegedly said that when Mitra was pregnant, Bharti had hit her on the stomach and had a dog attack her. “These are the only instance that proposed accused named complainant’s husband in her press conference. The complainant then in her testimony… has not denied these statements to be false. Complainant never denied that she had (complained) alleging that her husband ‘attacked her during pregnancy with her dog’,” the court said. “The complainant has alleged that the defamation was… when proposed accused stated about complainant’s case/allegations against her husband Somnath Bharti, without clarifying that both complainant and her husband are now residing peacefully and amicably. The complainant has not denied that the proposed accused was merely reiterating complainant’s old allegations against her husband,” it added. Bharti, a lawyer by profession, had represented the Malviya Nagar Assembly constituency from 2013 until 2025.