New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday junked a plea filed by former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal against an order passed by the Gujarat High Court, which refused to quash summons in connection with a defamation case over his alleged remarks about the academic degree of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The matter came up before a bench comprising justices Hrishikesh Roy and S V N Bhatti. Kejriwal moved the apex court against the order passed by the Gujarat High Court on February 16, refusing to quash the summons issued against him.
The bench rejected Kejriwal’s plea citing the case of AAP MP Sanjay Singh who was denied any relief in the case on April 8 by a separate bench. "We must have a consistent approach," said the bench, while
During the hearing, senior advocate A M Singhvi, representing Kejriwal, submitted that there is a distinction between the statement made by Sanjay Singh and Kejriwal. However, the bench made it clear that it was not keen to entertain the matter and told the council that it had to follow a consistent approach.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta cited the order passed by the Gujarat High Court which imposed a cost for filing an RTI plea on Modi's degree which was already put on the university's website.
It was argued before the bench that the idea behind the defamation case was to disqualify him from public life for asking for the degree. Singhvi also questioned the validity of the complaint by Gujarat University's registrar Piyush M Patel.
He contended that if the statement was defamatory, it was for Prime Minister Modi to be aggrieved with it, and the statement can't be defamatory for the university. Singhvi requested the bench to allow him to file a chart showing his statement was different from that of Sanjay Singh and expressing regret over it. Mehta opposed this argument and the petitioner should have been more circumspect. Mehta stressed that the petitioner is in the habit of making defamatory statements and then expressing regret right from the late Arun Jaitley case.
A criminal defamation case was filed by the Gujarat University against AAP leaders for “sarcastic and derogatory” statements made on April 1 and 2, 2023 with regard to Modi’s degree, which “tarnished its goodwill and image.”
Piyush Patel, the university’s registrar, had filed a defamation case against Kejriwal and Singh over their comments after the high court set aside an order of the Chief Information Commissioner on PM Modi's degree.
