The Delhi High Court on Thursday refused to quash a criminal defamation case against Shashi Tharoor, Congress Member of Parliament (MP) over a statement comparing Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a scorpion.
Justice Anup Kumar Mendiratta passed the order rejecting Tharoor’s plea to quash the case. The Court vacated its interim order staying the proceedings and ordered the parties to appear before the trial court on September 10. “No grounds are made for quashing the proceedings at this stage,” the Court said.
The trial court had issued summons to Tharoor after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Rajiv Babbar filed the defamation case against Tharoor. The Congress leader had allegedly made the statement in November 2018 at the Bangalore Literature Festival. He allegedly said that “Mr. Modi is a scorpion sitting on a Shivling.” Tharoor asserted that he was merely quoting another person, Gordhan Zadaphia, and that statement has been in public domain for the last several years.
His lawyers argued that Tharoor did not make any false opinion or comments and rather only quoted a direct statement from an already piece of journalistic work. It was argued that the Complainant, Babbar was not an aggrieved person in terms of Section 499 IPC and that the true origin and purport of the speech was cleverly concealed by him. The Court was told that the complaint by Babbar is completely false and frivolous and the issuance of summons by the trial court was erroneous and contrary to the principles of criminal jurisprudence.
