Remark against PM Modi: SC to hear Shashi Tharoor's plea in defamation case

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday a plea of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor against a Delhi High Court verdict that refused to quash defamation proceedings against him for his alleged "scorpion on Shivling" remark targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

While hearing Tharoor's plea on September 10, the apex court had stayed the proceedings before a trial court in the defamation case filed against the Congress MP.

The top court had also issued notice to the Delhi Police and BJP leader Rajiv Babbar, who is the complainant in the case, seeking their responses on the plea.

As per the cause list of October 14 uploaded on the apex court website, a bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and SVN Bhatti is slated to hear Tharoor's plea.

The Congress MP has moved the top court against the high court's August 29 order which refused to quash the defamation proceedings against him.

During the hearing on September 10, Tharoor's counsel told the apex court that the complainant cannot be said to be an aggrieved party in the case and members of the political party also cannot be said to be an aggrieved party.

His counsel argued that Tharoor's comment was protected under the immunity clause of the defamation law, which stipulates that any statement made in good faith was not criminal.

The lawyer said Tharoor made a reference to an article published in the Caravan magazine six years before the statement was made.

The top court had expressed surprise that in 2012, the statement was not defamatory when the article was originally published.

"Eventually it is a metaphor. I have tried to understand. It refers to the invincibility of the person referred to (Modi). I do not know why somebody has taken objection here," Justice Roy had remarked during the hearing.

While refusing to quash the proceedings against Tharoor, the high court had said prima facie, imputations like "scorpion on Shivling" against the prime minister were "despicable and deplorable".

The high court, which on October 16, 2020, stayed the criminal proceedings against the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram in the defamation complaint, vacated the interim order and directed the parties to appear before the trial court on September 10.

It had said that prima facie, the remark defamed the prime minister, the BJP as well as its office-bearers and members.

Dismissing Tharoor's petition seeking quashing of the defamation proceedings pending before the trial court, the high court had said there was sufficient material before the judicial magistrate for summoning him under section 500 (punishment for defamation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The Congress leader had sought setting aside the trial court's April 27, 2019 order summoning him as an accused in the criminal defamation complaint filed by Rajiv Babbar as also the November 2, 2018 complaint.

The criminal complaint was filed against Tharoor in the trial court by Babbar, who claimed that his religious sentiments were hurt by the Congress leader's statement.

In October 2018, Tharoor had claimed that an unnamed RSS leader had compared Modi to "a scorpion sitting on a Shivling". The Congress leader had said it was an "extraordinarily striking metaphor".