Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga on Friday told the Delhi High Court that the former Union minister Subramanian Swamy is a “perpetual defamer” and that he sued the veteran politician for criminal defamation to protect his “hard-earned reputation”.
The submission was made by Bagga's counsel Senior Advocate Pavan Narang before a bench of Justice Ravinder Dudeja during the hearing of Swamy’s plea seeking quashing of Bagga’s defamation case against him.
Advocates Ajay Sabharwal and Satya Sabharwal appeared for Swamy and argued that the Swamy's tweet was innocuous. They sought time to respond to Bagga’s reply in Swamy's petition.
The Court then adjourned the case to April 2026.
In his complaint before a magistrate, Bagga has alleged that Swamy, who has over 10 million followers on Twitter, put out a “false and incorrect” tweet accusing him of being jailed many times for petty offences at Delhi’s Mandir Marg Police Station.
In March 2022, a magistrate court had summoned Swamy on Bagga's complaint. Swamy then moved the High Court, which stayed the order in April 2022.
Bagga has now filed a reply in the case, arguing that Swamy “has a history of making controversial statements on Twitter”. Swamy's conduct demonstrates a "reckless disregard for truth and the reputation of others", the BJP leader has said.
“The Petitioner [Swamy] cannot be allowed to abuse his freedom of speech by making false and defamatory statements with impunity,” the reply states.
On Swamy’s tweet that he was "jailed many times for petty crimes by the New Delhi Mandir Marg Police Station”, Bagga said that the allegation is categorically false as established by the report of the local sub-inspector confirming that no FIR was ever registered against him.
Bagga said that Swamy’s tweet damaged his reputation, as he was summoned by senior BJP leaders to explain the allegations.
“Reputation is not measured by political appointments but by esteem in the eyes of right-thinking members of society,” the reply said.
Bagga has also claimed that Swamy harbours malice against him and has been making defamatory statements against him since 2020. On his tweets against Swamy, Bagga said they do not amount to defamation but at best can be termed political satire or commentary.