The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea of Arvind Kejriwal challenging the Gujarat High Court order refusing to quash summons sent to him in a criminal defamation case by Gujarat University over his comments in connection with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's degree. A bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and SVN Bhatti said that a similar plea filed by AAP leader Sanjay Singh had been dismissed by the apex court earlier.
"We must have a consistent approach," the bench said while refusing to entertain Kejriwal's plea. Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the former Delhi Chief Minister, told the bench that there was no statement made against the University and hence, it could not have filed any defamation complaint. Seeking disclosure of the degree of persons in public life cannot lead to a defamation action, he added. Gujarat University Registrar Piyush Patel had filed a defamation case against Kejriwal and Sanjay Singh over their alleged comments after the Gujarat High Court set aside an order of the Chief Information Commissioner for providing information about the Prime Minister's degrees to them under the RTI Act.
Earlier this year, the High Court had declined to quash the summons issued to Kejriwal in the defamation case. Challenging the order, Kejriwal approached the apex court seeking quashing of the criminal proceedings. A Gujarat Metropolitan court had summoned Kejriwal and Singh in the defamation case over their "sarcastic and derogatory" statements in connection with Modi's degree. Later, they filed a revision application in the Sessions court challenging the Metropolitan court's summons in the case.
However, the Sessions court had declined their plea for an interim stay on trial, after which they approached the Gujarat High Court. According to the University, AAP leaders' comments targeting the Gujarat University were defamatory and hurt the prestige of the university which has established its name among the public. Earlier, the Gujarat High Court had quashed a 2016 order of the Central Information Commission which directed the Gujarat University to provide information on Modi's degree to Kejriwal.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DNA staff and is published from ANI)
