New Delhi: The Supreme Court advised politicians to develop a ‘thick skin’ as it dismissed a plea by BJP’s Telangana unit challenging a high court order which had quashed a defamation case against chief minister A Revanth Reddy over a speech during the 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign.
A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) BR Gavai, and Justices K Vinod Chandran and Atul S Chandurkar also warned the petitioner not to argue further, or face a Rs 10-lakh fine.
“You should have a thick skin to bear all of this if you are a strong politician,” CJI Gavai said.
“We have repeatedly said on many occasions that courts cannot be converted into political battlegrounds,” he added.
The CM had allegedly said during an election rally last year that the BJP was going to change the Constitution and end reservations if it secured more than 400 seats in the Lok Sabha polls.
Telangana BJP, represented by its general secretary Karam Venkateshwarlau, filed a complaint in May 2024 alleging that Reddy’s speech had defamed the party.
In August 2024, a trial court said there was a prima facie case against the Congress leader for alleged offences of defamation under the BNSS and under Section 125 of The Representation of the People Act, 1951, which deals with promoting enmity between classes in connection with elections.
The Telangana High Court quashed the trial court order on August 1, agreeing with the chief minister’s contention that the threshold to allege defamation and maintain a complaint under Section 199 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) should be much higher in the case of political speeches.
