Shashi Tharoor Gets Relief In Defamation Case For Remarks Against PM Modi In 2018

OB Bureau

September 10, 2024 9:49 pm

Pic courtesy Twitter

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed proceedings before a trial court in a defamation case lodged against Congress MP Shashi Tharoor for his alleged “scorpion on Shivling” remarks targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A bench of Justice Hrishikesh Roy and Justice R Mahadevan issued notice to the Delhi Police and BJP leader Rajiv Babbar, who is the complainant in the case.

Tharoor was supposed to appear before a trial court here on Tuesday in pursuance of a Delhi High Court order.

“Issue notice returnable in four weeks. In the meantime, further proceedings in pursuance to the impugned judgement are stayed,” the bench said, according to PTI.

Tharoor has moved the top court against the Delhi High Court order which refused to quash defamation proceedings against him on August 29. During the hearing, advocate Mohammed Ali Khan, appearing for Tharoor, submitted that the complainant cannot be said to be an aggrieved party in the case and members of political party also cannot be said to be an aggrieved party.

Khan added that Tharoor’s comment was protected under the immunity clause of the defamation law, which stipulates that any statement made in good faith was not criminal. He stated the High Court expanded the definition of “person aggrieved” in a defamation case to unacceptable limits.

The lawyer said Tharoor made a reference to an article published in the Caravan magazine six years before the statement was made.

“None had any grievance to the article and the uttered sentence as published in the magazine. However, when Mr Tharoor made a reference to the same article, same was perceived as defamatory by the complainant,” the lawyer said, according to PTI.

The top court expressed surprise that, in 2012, the statement was not defamatory when the article was originally published.

“Eventually it is a metaphor. I have tried to understand. It refers to the invincibility of the person referred to (Modi). I do not know why somebody has taken objection here,” Justice Roy remarked during the hearing.the high court order.

In October 2018, Tharoor had claimed that an unnamed RSS leader had compared Modi to “a scorpion sitting on a Shivling”. The Congress leader had said it was an “extraordinarily striking metaphor”.