Delhi Court summons notary after Dhruv Rathee’s lawyers flagged a document certified on Republic Day. BJP leader Suresh Nakhua’s defamation case faces scrutiny over alleged defects in evidence.
New Delhi: A Delhi court has asked a notary to personally appear before it on August 8 in connection with a defamation case filed by BJP leader Suresh Nakhua against YouTuber Dhruv Rathee.
The order was passed by District Judge Gunjan Gupta after serious doubts were raised regarding the authenticity of a certificate attached to a document filed by Nakhua under Section 63 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023, which deals with the admissibility of electronic records in evidence.
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Senior Advocate Satvik Verma and Advocate Nakul Gandhi, who are representing Dhruv Rathee, questioned the validity of the notarial certificate submitted by Nakhua.
They pointed out that the document was supposedly certified on January 26 — Republic Day — which is a national holiday and a gazetted one, when notarial work typically does not take place.
They also told the court that the notary’s stamp was present on the document but without any specific date of attestation, raising further suspicion about whether the document was genuinely certified.
Verma said,
“In the entire pendency of the litigation, such defects have been noted repeatedly and therefore, the notary must be summoned.”
Due to these concerns, the court decided to summon the notary who signed the document so the notary can explain the matter in person. The court’s direction comes in response to the repeated concerns about document verification in this ongoing case.
On the other hand, Advocate Mukesh Sharma, who appeared for Nakhua, defended the submission and said that the date “January 26” was written by mistake.
He clarified that the actual certification happened on “January 27.” He also turned the spotlight on the documents submitted by Dhruv Rathee, stating that they too contained some errors.
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Sharma told the court that he would soon place certain judicial precedents on record to support his case.
The court allowed Sharma to submit those judgments in due course.
The defamation suit was filed by Suresh Karamshi Nakhua, who is the spokesperson for the Mumbai unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
He has taken legal action against Dhruv Rathee over a video Rathee posted on YouTube on July 7, titled
“My Reply to Godi Youtubers | Elvish Yadav | Dhruv Rathee.”
According to Nakhua, in that video, Rathee made baseless statements that tried to link him to
“violent and abusive trolls.”
Nakhua claims that these allegations were presented “without any rhyme or reason” and seriously harmed his public image and personal life.
He asserted that Rathee’s video led to him facing mass criticism and humiliation. Nakhua stated in the court document,
“The repercussions of such false allegations are manifold, extending well beyond the realm of the video itself to irrevocably impact both the personal and professional domains of the Plaintiff, leaving scars that may never fully heal.”
This is not the first time issues have come up regarding documents filed by Nakhua in this case. Back in September, the court had already flagged a defect in one of Nakhua’s affidavits and asked him to submit a corrected version. Following that order, Nakhua did file an amended affidavit.
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