The Karnataka Excessive Court docket Friday granted a keep order to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in a defamation case filed by the BJP regarding posters put up within the run-up to the 2023 Meeting elections.
Final week, the excessive court docket bench comprising Justice S R Krishna Kumar had additionally granted an identical interim keep order in favour of Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D Ok Shivakumar within the case.
Earlier this yr, in January, a bench consisting of Justice M Nagaprasanna had granted a keep to Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, who can also be a co-accused within the defamation case.
The posters in query had been a part of the Congress’s ‘PayCM advert marketing campaign’. The posters included QR codes, photos of the then Karnataka BJP CM Basavaraj Bommai, and ‘price playing cards’ and slogans referring to ‘40 per cent corruption’.
On the time, Bommai had referred to the marketing campaign as a scientific ploy “to not solely tarnish the state’s picture but in addition of my picture.” Directions got to officers to instantly guide a case.
Rahul Gandhi’s petition had argued that the commercials amounted to a criticism of the BJP authorities, which was not the identical as defamation. It was additionally argued that the BJP, as a non-public physique, couldn’t file a defamation criticism towards public servants like MPs and MLAs, as this needed to be finished by the State.
The excessive court docket had earlier acquitted two Congress employees who had been accused of damaging public property by placing up the posters.