A Gujarat Court has issued summons to the Chief minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal along with the Aam Aadmi Party’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh in a criminal defamation complaint filed by Gujarat University for making a derogatory statements made by them in connection with the controversy regarding the academic degree of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Jayeshbhai Chovatiya passed the order on Saturday while dealing with a criminal complaint which was filed by the Gujarat University,through its Registrar Dr. Piyush M.Patel.
The complaint was filed against Kejriwal and Singh under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code. The Court found a prima facie case against them.
Talking about the certain statements made by Kejriwal and Singh, after the Gujarat High Court order quashed and setting aside the 2016 order of the Central Information Commission (CIC) directing the Gujarat University to provide “information regarding degrees in the name of Mr. Narendra Damodar Modi” to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
The complaint accuses them of making sarcastic and defamatory statements in press conferences and on Twitter handles targeting the university over Modi’s degree.
[If degree is there and it is correct then why degree is not being given… Why Gujarat and Delhi University are not giving degree? The degree is not being given because the degree may be fake… If the Prime Minister studied from Delhi University, Gujarat University, then Gujarat University should celebrate that our boy has become the Prime Minister of the country. …it is trying to hide his degree…[Univerisity] put his all to prove a fake degree (of PM) as right],” is the statements that have been attributed to Kejriwal by the University in its complaint.”
The Complaint further states that immediately after the Gujarat High Court’s order, Kejriwal made defamatory statements against Gujarat University in a press conference despite being aware of the fact that the Prime Minister’s degree has been published on the University’s website long back.Importantly, the Univeristy also put up a contention in its complainant that CM Kejriwal made the statements in his “personal capacity” and “not affairs of the State”.
Agreeing with this submission, the Court ordered to delete words ‘Chief Minister’ from Kejriwal’s name in the cause title of the case.Also Read – Karnataka BJP MLA Madal Virupakshappa Gets Bail In Bribery Case On Personal Bond Of ₹5 LakhFurther, the Court also observed that prima facie, both Kejriwal adn Singh appeared to have targeted the Gujarat University as the words uttered by them were sarcastic and meant to target the Gujarat University’s image in the minds of the people.
“It is natural that due to the statements of the accused people who know the credit of Gujarat University and all the people who do not know Gujarat University will develop distrust towards Gujarat University,” the Court observed.
The Court also opined that if the political office bearers, instead of fulfilling their duty to their people, do any work directly or indirectly for their personal enmity or selfishness, to harm the opponents or the same person, and if they utter any such words, those words will be considered a violation of the trust placed by the people and the words uttered will be considered personal.
Against this backdrop, giving a reasonable opportunity to Kejriwal and Singh to refute the allegations against them, the Court proceeded ahead to issue summons / process to them under section 204 CrPC directing them to appear on May 23.