The Delhi High Court on Thursday refused to quash a criminal defamation complaint filed against Congress MP Shashi Tharoor for his alleged "scorpion on a Shivling" comment against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
A bench presided over by Justice Anoop Kumar Mendiratta had dismissed Tharoor's appeal seeking to quash the criminal defamation complaint filed against him by BJP leader Rajiv Babbar. The court ordered that both parties "shall appear before the trial court on September 10" and also vacated the earlier interim order that had stayed the proceedings before the lower court.
The case pertains to some remarks made by Tharoor at the Bengaluru Literature Festival in 2018. Babbar claimed the remarks by Tharoor hurt his religious sentiments. Babbar had then said that by belittling the religious sentiment of millions of Shiva devotees, Tharoor had committed defamation under Sections 499 and 500 of the erstwhile IPC.
The trial court had issued summons to Tharoor for an offence under Section 500 IPC. At the very outset, Tharoor had approached the Delhi High Court contending that the impugned order issuing summons was ex facie bad in law and ran counter to the fundamental principles of criminal jurisprudence. Tharoor had contended that his comments were only based on a published journalistic piece and a bona fide opinion or fair comment should not be held to be defamatory.
In October 2020, the Delhi High Court had granted an interim stay of the trial proceedings and sought a response from the defendant on Tharoor's petition. Earlier, a Delhi court had slapped a fine of Rs 5,000 on Tharoor for non-appearance for repeated dates and ordered his appearance at the next hearing. Following the dismissal of Tharoor's plea by the High Court, he shall now face trial.
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