New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday put on hold the execution of a bailable warrant against Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and two other BJP leaders in a defamation case filed by Congress Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha.
The matter came up for hearing before Justices Hrishikesh Roy and S V N Bhatti. Senior advocates Mahesh Jethmalani and Maninder Singh appeared for the appellants’, and senior advocate Kapil Sibal and advocate Sumeer Sodhi appeared for Tankha before the bench. Tankha, in his complaint in the trial court, said defamatory statements were made in the run-up to Panchayat elections in the state in 2021.
The appellant’s counsel submitted that defamation proceedings are initiated against his client at the instance of the respondent (complainant). “The alleged defamatory statements respectively relate to 22.12.2021 and 25.12.2021, in the backdrop of the Madhya Pradesh local bodies elections. The counsel submits that cognizance of the said proceeding was erroneously taken by the concerned court and the same should not have been done in the teeth of Article 194(2) of the Constitution”, said the bench, in its order.
Article 194 (2) states, "No member of the Legislature of a State shall be liable to any proceedings in any court in respect of anything said or any vote given by him in the Legislature or any committee thereof, and no person shall be so liable in respect of the publication by or under the authority of a House of such a Legislature of any report, paper, votes or proceedings."
The apex court sought Tankha's response on a plea of Chouhan and others challenging the October 25 order of the Madhya Pradesh High Court refusing to quash the defamation case. “In the meantime, subject to the petitioners’ effective participation with counsel as may be needed, before the concerned Court, they need not be subjected to bailable warrants”, said the bench, in its order.
Jethmalani argued that it was unheard of that in a summons case, a bailable warrant was issued by the court, when the parties could appear through their counsel.
The Madhya Pradesh High Court on October 25, had declined to quash the defamation case lodged by Tankha against former Madhya Pradesh CM Chouhan, BJP state president V D Sharma and former minister Bhupendra Singh.
A trial court in January 2024, registered the defamation case against the three BJP leaders under IPC Section 500, summoning them in court.
