NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered stay on the proceedings against Congress MP Shashi Tharoor in a defamation case initiated for his alleged 2018 statement comparing Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a scorpion sitting on 'Shivling'.
A bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and R Mahadevan issued notice to complainant BJP leader, Rajiv Babbar returnable within four weeks.
"The remark was a metaphor, which is good enough to substitute thousand words...If the metaphor is understood in the manner we understand it, we don't know why somebody has taken offence," the bench orally observed.
Tharoor was to appear before the trial court here on Tuesday, September 10 as per the Delhi High Court.
He got the relief as the apex court passed its order on his special leave petition.
The Delhi High Court had in its August 09, 2024 judgment rejected Tharoor's petition to dismiss the criminal defamation case.
Advocate Mahammed Ali Khan, appearing for Tharoor, submitted Tharoor has just repeated the remark already published in a magazine in 2012.
He also said the statement made by him would fall within exception clause 8 and 9 of Section 499 of IPC since the remark was made in good faith.
He also contended a member of the political party cannot be said to be an aggrieved person to file a defamation case.
The bench noted the "extraordinarily striking metaphor" made by the petitioner was perceived as defamatory and decided to examine Tharoor's petition.
The petitioner reiterated that his remarks made on October 28, 2018 was based on the statement made March 1, 2012 in a magazine and the complainant, though was aware of, did not do anything with regard to it.
The senior Congress leader had made the statement at the Bangalore Literature Festival, that "Mr Modi is a scorpion sitting on a Shivling."
The Delhi High Court rejected his plea for quashing the proceedings and has directed him to appear before the trial court on September 10.
"There are no justifiable reasons to dismiss the proceedings at this stage," the HC said.
Tharoor, on his part, contended that he was merely echoing a quote from Gordhan Zadaphia, which has been publicly available for several years.
He claimed the comments were not his own opinions but a repetition of an existing statement.
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