BJP's Nishikant Dubey files civil and criminal defamation cases against ex-bureaucrat SC Garg

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Nishikant Dubey has filed two defamation cases against the former finance secretary Subhash Chandra Garg.

While the criminal defamation case has been filed before Delhi's Patiala House Court, the civil defamation case has been filed before the Delhi High Court.

In the High Court case, Dubey has sought damages of ₹2 crore from Garg.

Dubey has sued Garg over remarks in which he allegedly called Dubey a "blackmailing kind of person". Garg had also said that Dubey came to his office to lean on the Chairman of the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) to get his work done.

The BJP MP has argued that the allegations are false, malicious and defamatory.

The feud between Dubey and Garg intensified this month after Garg publicly questioned the Centre’s reported 7.8% GDP growth figure for the first quarter.

Dubey responded by reviving his criticism of Garg’s tenure as a senior finance ministry bureaucrat and shared a March 2018 letter in which he had urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to review Garg’s macroeconomic policy framework. 

The dispute escalated after Garg, speaking on a podcast, alleged that Dubey had visited his office in 2018 and sought his intervention in matters concerning the LIC, transfers and contracts. Garg described the interaction as an attempt to exert pressure on him.

Dubey denied ever visiting Garg’s office and accused the former bureaucrat of making defamatory and false claims. Dubey subsequently sent a legal notice to Garg, demanding an unconditional apology.

Garg sent his response to the legal notice. After this, Dubey filed the defamation case.

The defamation cases have been filed through advocate Amit V Awasthi.