NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has issued a stay on criminal defamation proceedings against Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, granting him a legal reprieve from appearing in a defamation case related to his 2018 remarks allegedly comparing Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a scorpion.
The stay was granted on September 10, 2024, the day Tharoor was scheduled to appear before the trial court. The Supreme Court bench, consisting of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and R. Mahadevan, also issued a notice to BJP leader Rajiv Babbar, who had filed the complaint against Tharoor’s remarks made at the Bangalore Literature Festival.
The bench sought a response from the Delhi Police and scheduled the matter for further hearing in four weeks.
Tharoor’s legal team, led by advocate Muhammad Ali Khan, argued that Babbar and other BJP members did not qualify as “aggrieved persons” under defamation law since the primary target of the remarks, the Prime Minister, had not initiated any action. Khan also contended that Tharoor’s remarks were protected under the immunity clause for comments made in good faith and were based on an earlier published article about Modi.
The Delhi High Court had previously declined to quash the case, stating that Tharoor’s comments were “despicable and deplorable” and impacted the image of the BJP and its affiliates. The high court noted that the remarks seemed to reflect frustration with Modi’s leadership and potentially defamed both him and his party.
Tharoor’s defense argued that the statement was a fair reproduction of an earlier article and that the summoning order was flawed because it did not include witness testimonies to support the newspaper reports. The high court, while upholding the summoning order, allowed Tharoor to present his arguments during the trial.
The complaint, originally filed in 2018, accused Tharoor of making disparaging remarks against the Prime Minister and hurting religious sentiments. The Supreme Court’s stay provides Tharoor with temporary relief from the defamation proceedings.
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