Digvijay Singh statement amount to defamation in case of allegations on Bhushan

NEW DELHI: On Wednesday former law minister Shanti send a legal notice to Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh and demanded a public apology for alleging that he had not paid adequate stamp duty and undervalued a property in Allahabad.

Shanti Bhushan, a senior Supreme Court counsel and a co-chair of the joint committee for drafting anti-graft Lokpal Bill, sought the apology through a defamation notice served on Singh, a copy of which has been sent to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Advocate Kamini Jaiswal served the notice for defamation said that Singh had given an interview to journalist Karan Thapar on Devil’s Advocate programme and had cast aspersions on the integrity of Bhushan.

On NDTV during an interview on 15th April Singh stated that Bhushan pressurised the owner of the property in Allahbad to sell it to him at an undervalued price and also cheated the revenue department by not paying the correct stamp duty.

The notice says “In this show you cast an aspersion on the integrity of my client and also suggested that my client had undervalued the property which he had purchased in Allahabad and also not paid adequate stamp duty on it. You also said this raised serious question marks about his not being a suitable person to be on the committee for drafting the Lokpal Bill to fight corruption.”

“You have further said that the government has sent a notice to my client demanding stamp duty of more than Rs.1 crore. All your above statements are false and highly damaging to my client’s reputation,” the notice said.

The notice said that Bhushan’s conduct in the case of purchase of property had been exemplary and in accordance with law. It also says that Singh’s statements amount to defamation, both civil and criminal, under Section 499 of the Indian Penal Code punishable under Section 500 with imprisonment of up to two years.

So the notice demanded public apology saying, “You are, therefore, called upon to immediately publicly apologise for the incorrect allegations made by you against my client, failing which we will be constrained to take proceedings against you both civil and criminal in appropriate courts of law at your risk and cost.”