E-Paper
PM Modi's degree: No relief for AAP's Sanjay Singh in Supreme Court on plea against summons
The Supreme Court refuses to stay the defamation summons issued against AAP MP Sanjay Singh for questioning the degree of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to stay the defamation summons issued against AAP MP Sanjay Singh for questioning the degree of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Sanjay Singh had challenged the summons issued by a Gujarat court in the defamation case filed by Gujarat University.
Gujarat University registrar Piyush Patel had filed the defamation case against Delhi chief minister 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 Modi's educational degrees to them under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
In January, the Supreme Court stayed the proceedings before a trial court on the defamation complaint filed by the Gujarat University against Arvind Kejriwal and Sanjay Singh, news agency PTI reported.
Also Read | AAP's Sanjay Singh says he is ‘hurt’ over Nitish Kumar's exit from INDIA bloc
A bench of Justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta had passed the order while hearing Sanjay's Singh's plea seeking a transfer of the case pending before a trial court in Gujarat outside the state, preferably in Kolkata, PTI added.
The apex court had asked the Gujarat high court to take a decision within four weeks on a plea filed by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders seeking quashing of the summonses issued to them by the trial court.
In August last year, the top court refused to entertain Arvind Kejriwal's plea challenging the high court order that rejected his request to stay the criminal defamation proceedings filed by the university.
The high court, on August 11 last year, rejected the plea moved by Arvind Kejriwal and Sanjay Singh seeking an interim stay on the criminal defamation proceedings against them, the PTI report added.
A Gujarat metropolitan court had earlier summoned Kejriwal and Singh in the case over their alleged "sarcastic" and "derogatory" statements in connection with Modi's educational degrees.
The two AAP leaders subsequently filed a revision application in the sessions court, challenging the metropolitan court's summonses.
However, the sessions court rejected their plea for an interim stay on the trial, after which they approached the high court.
Also Read | 'Modi ki guarantee hai': Sanjay Singh mocks BJP slogan as AAP holds daylong fast
According to the complaint filed by Patel, the two leaders allegedly made "defamatory" statements at press conferences and on microblogging platform X, targeting the university over Modi's degrees.
Their comments targeting the Gujarat University were defamatory and hurt the prestige of the institution, which has established its name among the public, the complainant alleged.
On March 31 last year, the high court quashed a 2016 order of the Central Information Commission (CIC), which directed the Gujarat University to provide information on Modi's educational degrees to Arvind Kejriwal, observing that the AAP chief's RTI plea appeared to be “politically vexatious and motivated”, instead of being based on “sound public interest considerations”.
(With inputs from PTI)
