'Why Touchy, Lets Close This': SC On Defamation Case Against Shashi Tharoor Over PM Modi Remark
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday, August 1, heard a criminal defamation suit filed against Congress leader Shashi Tharoor over an alleged defamatory remark made about Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2018.
Hearing the case, the court orally remarked that proceedings in the criminal defamation need to be closed. A bench comprising Justice MM Sundresh and Justice NK Singh remarked, “Let us close this. Why do you want to be touchy about all this? Let us close all this.”
Senior Advocate Pinky Anand, appearing for the complainant responded that the matter will have to be heard anyway. The Court agreed and listed the matter for another day. The interim stay order granted in the case last year will continue.
In September last year, the top court had stayed the criminal proceedings in the criminal defamation complaint against the Congress MP, asking parties to file their detailed responses before the further hearing.
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The defamation suit was filed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Rajiv Babbar against the “scorpion sitting on a Shivling” remark about the Prime Minister. The court last year had also issued notices to the complainant Babbar and the Delhi government regarding Tharoor’s plea to quash the defamation case.
During the hearing back then, Advocate Mohammed Ali Khan, appearing for Tharoor, submitted that he merely quoted from an article published by The Caravan magazine in 2012, which allegedly included a remark by an unnamed RSS leader comparing Narendra Modi to “a scorpion sitting on a Shivling”.
