A Delhi court on Wednesday dismissed a plea against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and others for allegedly defaming Prime Minister Narendra Modi, PTI reported. Three persons – Yogesh Bhardwaj, Rakshpal Singh and Ijharul-Haq – had moved the court asking it to order the police to file a first information report against Kejriwal for questioning Modi’s educational degree.

However, the court said a defamation plea can be filed only by the aggrieved party. “Admittedly, the complainants are not the aggrieved/victims of defamatory statements, if any,” the court said. “Therefore, they have no locus to file and prosecute the present case as far as the offence of defamation is concerned.”

The petitioners had also sought FIRs against Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, and Aam Aadmi Party leaders Ashutosh, Raghav Chadha, Ashish Khetan and Jitender Singh Tomar.

Dismissing the plea, the court also said that it was unclear what offences the complainants had charged the respondents with. It said that except for the offence alleged under Section 504 of the Indian Penal Code (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), all others related to forgery.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal said the defendants could not be said to have committed forgery, as the prosecution had not put any forged documents on record. The court said there was nothing in the complaint to substantiate charges under Section 504 either.

On April 5, the Delhi High Court had refused to order an interim stay on trial proceedings in a criminal defamation case against Kejriwal filed by a former aide of Congress leader Sheila Dikshit, who alleged that the chief minister had made defamatory comments against her.

Over the last two months, Kejriwal and several other AAP leaders have apologised to many political leaders in an effort to get rid of the dozens of defamation cases against them in court. So far, Kejriwal has apologised to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia, Union minister Nitin Gadkari and Congress leader Kapil Sibal.