The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is facing a Rs 100 crore defamation suit filed by Reliance Infrastructure (R-Infra) Limited in the Bombay High Court, on Friday denied making any baseless allegations against the company.
"We have never said what they claim we have said. For example, we have never said fraud or illegality,"
Aspi Chinoy, AAP's counsel, told Justice S. J. Kathawalla.
R-Infra has filed a suit against AAP, Anjali Damania, State unit convenor, Preeti Sharma-Menon, spokesperson and secretary of Maharashtra unit and party member Satish Jain.
The court on Friday also refused to entertain R-Infra's plea seeking directions to restrain AAP from making any allegations or statements against the regulatory body MERC (Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission). "Let the regulator come here," Justice Kathawalla said.
The company sought the restrain directions after AAP submitted that nearly all its submissions against R-Infra were based on MERC's orders and reports on it. "All our comments are based on MERC's orders and reports. We have made fair comments. Our justifications are based on records and reports," Mr. Chinoy said.
Meanwhile, R-Infra sought time from the court to amend its petition.
"Normally, it is the defendant who has to prove that he did not make any defamatory statements. But in this case, let me take the burden on myself to show why their statements are false and malicious," senior advocate V.R. Dhond said.
He sought time to include a short note explaining the defamation. The court allowed him time till Monday to submit the draft amendments. The political party will thereafter get two weeks to respond to the allegations.
The court will hear the matter next on March 10.
