New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday rejected AAP MP Sanjay Singh's plea challenging the issuance of summons by the trial court in a defamation case filed by Gujarat University about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s academic degree. Senior advocate Rebecca John, representing Singh, submitted before a bench led by Justice BR Gavai and comprising Justice Sandeep Mehta that her client has not defamed the Gujarat University. She stressed that the university was not even named and questioned, how is it affected.
She said her client never uploaded any video on X, formerly known as Twitter, and her client never said that Gujarat University has forged any degree. She stressed that it was incumbent on the university to find out from Twitter if any such video was uploaded. The bench orally observed and told the counsel that only a prime facie case is needed at the stage of complaint and you will have your opportunity and asked the counsel to read the complaint. The counsel reiterated where has the university been defamed. After hearing submissions, the bench said it was not inclined to entertain the petition.
Singh moved the apex court seeking to quash the summons issued to him in the matter by an Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate. The Gujarat High Court had earlier refused to grant Singh any relief in the matter. The Gujarat High Court in March last year said that PMOs need not furnish PM’s degree certificates under the Right to Information Act (RTI Act). Later, Gujarat University filed a complaint accusing the two politicians, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and Singh, of defamation.
