SC today hears Shashi Tharoor's petition to dismiss defamation suit

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a petition filed by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday challenging the Delhi High Court's refusal to quash a defamation case filed against him over his alleged remark about Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying he had “a scorpion sitting on a Shivling”.

According to the case list published on the Supreme Court website, a bench comprising Justice Hrishikesh Roy and R. Mahadevan will take up the case for hearing.

On Monday, Tharoor's plea was mentioned before the court headed by CJI DY Chandrachud when it rose after hearing all the pending matters.

“He (Tharoor) filed a petition in the Delhi High Court seeking quashing of the petition, but it was rejected on August 29. Immediately after that, within a week, an application for special permission was filed in the Supreme Court,” said the senior Congress leader's lawyer.

To this, CJI Chandrachud said, “Just send an email to the Registrar (Listing). I will immediately participate in all of them.”

On August 29, the Delhi High Court dismissed Tharoor's petition seeking quashing of the defamation suit filed by BJP leader Rajiv Babbar. A bench of the Supreme Court, Justice Anoop Kumar Mendiratta, asked the parties to appear before the court on September 10, quashed its earlier interim order and stayed the proceedings in the lower court.

Babbar filed a case against Tharoor for making a “scorpion” remark to Prime Minister Modi at the Bengaluru Literature Festival in 2018. In his complaint, Babbar alleged that Tharoor's statement had hurt his religious sentiments. Alleging that the senior Congress leader had shown total disregard for the sentiments of millions of Shiva devotees by insulting their religious beliefs, the BJP leader filed a complaint under sections 499 and 500 of the now-repealed Indian Penal Code (IPC).

After being summoned by the court for allegedly committing an offence under Section 500 of the IPC, Tharoor approached the Delhi High Court arguing that the summons were “legally objectionable” and “against the principles of criminal jurisprudence”.

In his plea, Tharoor said he had neither expressed a wrong opinion nor made a wrong comment but had merely quoted a direct statement from an already published work of journalism. He added that “a fair comment or honest opinion cannot be considered as defamation or insult”.

The Delhi HC in October 2020 ordered an interim stay of the trial and sought the accused's response to Tharoor's petition seeking quashing of the criminal defamation charge. Earlier, a Delhi court had fined Tharoor Rs 5,000 for his repeated non-appearance and urged him to appear before the court on the next date of hearing.

(With contributions from IANS)