The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s plea challenging the high court order rejecting his request to stay the criminal defamation regarding his comments about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s educational background, the Gujarat University launched legal action.
After the Gujarat High Court overturned the Chief Information Commissioner’s order to give them information about Modi’s degrees under the RTI Act, the Gujarat University Registrar Piyush Patel filed a defamation lawsuit against Kejriwal and AAP leader Sanjay Singh for their alleged comments.
As the case is still pending before the Gujarat High Court and is scheduled for hearing on August 29, a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti said it is not issuing notice on the plea.
The bench said that Kejriwal and the Gujarat University might file complaints with the high court.
Senior attorney Abhishek Singhvi, who is representing Kejriwal, stated at the opening that the high court had erroneously declined to issue an interim stay of the defamation case against him.
Kejriwal allegedly suppressed facts, according to Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who was advocating for the University.
Kejriwal and Sanjay Singh’s request for an interim stay of the criminal defamation proceedings against them was denied by the Gujarat High Court on August 11.
A Gujarat metropolitan court had earlier summoned Kejriwal and Singh in the defamation case over their “sarcastic” and “derogatory” statements in connection with PM Modi’s degree. The matter is listed for hearing on August 31.
The two AAP leaders later filed a revision application in the sessions court challenging the metropolitan court’s summons in the case.
However, the sessions court on August 7 rejected their plea for an interim stay on trial, after which they approached the Gujarat High Court. The revision application in the Sessions Court will now be heard on September 16.
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Only Kejriwal moved the top court challenging the high court order of August 11.
According to the complaint filed by Patel, the two leaders made “defamatory” statements at press conferences and on Twitter handles targeting the university over Modi’s degree.
Their criticism of Gujarat University was defamatory, according to the complainant, and it damaged the university’s reputation among the general public.
According to Patel’s complaint, “their remarks were sarcastic and deliberately made to hurt the prestige of the university.”
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The Gujarat High Court overturned a Central Information Commission (CIC) order from 2016 on March 31 after finding that Kejriwal’s RTI request appeared to be “politically vexatious and motivated” rather than being based on “sound public interest considerations.” The Gujarat University was ordered to provide Kejriwal with information about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s degree.
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