Sukhbir appears in Chandigarh court in 2017 defamation case

Chandigarh: Former Punjab deputy chief minister and Shiromani Akali Dal's president Sukhbir Singh Badal appeared in Chandigarh district court in a 9-year-old defamation case on Saturday. The court had issued a non-bailable warrant against him last month and cancelled his bail for repeatedly failing to appear during case hearings.On Jan 4, 2017, Rajinder Pal Singh, spokesperson of religious organisation Akhand Kirtani Jatha, filed a defamation case against him. Therefore, Badal appeared before the court and sought bail. The court granted him bail.Regarding the bail petition, Sukhbir's counsel Rajesh Kumar said that they filed a petition in the Punjab and Haryana high court against the defamation case, which was dismissed on Oct 17, 2025. Badal did not get information about this. His PA, Charanjit Singh Barad, handled information about HC and district court cases, but he quit his job, the lawyer said. Due to this, he did not know about court cases and dates, Kumar claimed. According to the case filed, on January 4, 2017, former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal visited Rajinder Pal Singh's house. After this meeting, Sukhbir gave a statement in which he allegedly called the jatha the political face of a terrorist organisation. Following this, Rajinder Pal Singh filed a defamation case against Badal in the Chandigarh district court. Rajinder said Badal's statement damaged his organisation's image.