Congress leader and Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor has filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi High Court order of August 29, which refused to quash defamation proceedings over his ‘scorpion on Shivling’ remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Tharoor sought urgent hearing on the matter on the grounds that if his petition was not heard by Tuesday, he would have to appear in a Delhi court in connection with the private defamation complaint the same day.
The Bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, who held the court till 6 pm as against the usual 4 pm on Monday, told Tharoor to circulate the mail. The CJI assured him that the Court would look into the matter.
On August 29, the Delhi High Court dismissed a petition filed by Congress leader and Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor seeking to quash a criminal defamation case filed against him over a statement comparing Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a scorpion.
Noting that no ground was made in the petition to quash the proceedings at this stage, the single-judge Bench of Justice Anup Kumar Mendiratta vacated its interim order staying the proceedings and ordered the parties to appear before the trial court on September 10.
Earlier, the trial court had issued summons to Tharoor after Bharatiya Janata Party leader Rajiv Babbar filed a defamation case against the Lok Sabha MP.
The Congress leader reportedly made the statement in November 2018 at the Bangalore Literature Festival. He allegedly said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was like a scorpion sitting on a ‘Shivling’.
The lawyers representing Tharoor said that he was merely quoting Gordhan Zadaphia from a piece of journalistic work. The statement made by Zadaphia has been in the public domain for the last several years.
They argued that the complainant was not an aggrieved person in terms of Section 499 IPC and that the true origin & purport of the speech was cleverly concealed by him.
The complaint made by Babbar was completely false & frivolous. The issuance of summons by the trial court was erroneous and contrary to the principles of criminal jurisprudence, added the lawyers.
Tharoor was represented by Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, along with Advocates Muhammad Ali Khan, Abhik Chimni, Omar Hoda, Eesha Bakshi, Uday Bhatia, Arjun Sharma and Kamran Khan
Senior Advocate Pinky Anand, along with Advocates Piyush Beriwal, Neeraj, Saudamini Sharma, Samrath Pasricha and Ojasvi, appeared for Rajiv Babbar.