New Warrant Issued Against YouTuber Dhruv Rathee in Defamation Case

A Delhi court has issued a new ‘bailable warrant’ against YouTuber Dhruv Rathee. This matter relates to an eight-year-old criminal defamation case filed by Vikas Pandey. While issuing this order, the Saket Court stated that the new warrant would be sent to Rathee’s address in Gurugram.

Previously, on October 17, the court had also issued a bailable warrant against Rathee. This step was taken after the court was informed that the earlier summons sent to Rathee could not be delivered because his house was locked.

However, the warrant issued on October 17 also failed to reach Rathee, as the court discovered that it had been sent to an incorrect address in Austria. On Saturday, the Saket Court was informed that Rathi had already left India.

The Next Hearing In This Matter Will Take Place On November 23.

Proceedings against Rathi had been pending for a long time, as there were repeated difficulties in serving summons to him since 2019. The complainant states that the case has been delayed because Rathi has consistently remained outside of India.

Rathi generally resides in Austria. The matter even reached the Supreme Court, as Arvind Kejriwal had challenged the criminal defamation proceedings initiated due to a retweet.

In February 2024, Kejriwal informed the Supreme Court that sharing (retweeting) the video was a mistake on his part. A bench comprising Justice Sanjiv Khanna who later became the Chief Justice of India (CJI) and has since retired and Justice Dipankar Datta stayed the trial court proceedings against Kejriwal. This occurred while they were hearing a petition challenging the Delhi High Court’s refusal to quash the summons issued against him.

The Delhi High Court had earlier upheld the summons order, observing that a prosecution could be initiated under Section 499 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for retweeting allegedly defamatory content.