Shashi Tharoor challenges Delhi HC's ruling on defamation case over 'scorpion on Shivling' remark
A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and N Kotiswar Singh passed the order after adjourning the matter on the request of Tharoor's lawyer.
The lawyer appearing for the complainant, BJP leader Rajeev Babbar, sought a hearing on a non-miscellaneous day.
"What non-miscellaneous day? Why do you want to be so touchy about all this? Let us close all this," the bench said, as it posted the matter for hearing on September 15.
Tharoor moved the top court against the Delhi High Court's August 29, 2024, order, which refused to quash the defamation proceedings against him, asking him to appear before the trial court on September 10.
Tharoor's counsel previously argued that neither the complainant nor the members of the political party could be called an aggrieved party.
The counsel also said that Tharoor's comment was protected under the immunity clause of the defamation law, which stipulates that any statement made in "good faith" is not criminal.
Tharoor was stated to have merely made a reference to an article published in the Caravan magazine six years prior to making the statement.
The top court had expressed surprise that in 2012, when the article was originally published, the statement was not deemed defamatory.
"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 said earlier.
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".
It said that prima facie, the remark defamed the prime minister, the BJP as well as its office-bearers and members.
The high court also said there was sufficient material before the judicial magistrate for summoning Tharoor under Section 500 (punishment for defamation) of the IPC.
The complainant alleged that his religious sentiments were hurt by the Congress leader's remark.
In October 2018, Tharoor reportedly claimed that an unnamed RSS leader had compared Modi to "a scorpion sitting on a Shivling".
The Congress leader purportedly said it was an "extraordinarily striking metaphor".
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
Opposition mounts attack on EC, panel rebuts charge
The Opposition continued its attack on the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday, accusing it of working at the behest of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Centre, evoking sharp reactions from the poll panel and ruling party leaders who asked them to give proof of their allegations. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge with Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and party leader Abhishek Singhvi during the party's Annual Legal Conclave at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi. (HT PHOTO) Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, who on Friday claimed that his party had uncovered an 'atom bomb' of evidence proving voters lists were manipulated on a large scale, reiterated his claims on Saturday, saying he will soon release the data that would send shockwaves through the election system. 'You will see the shockwave that is going to go through the electoral system when we release this data. It is literally like an atom bomb,' LoP in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said at the inaugural function of the day-long legal conclave on the theme 'Constitutional Challenges: Perspectives and Pathways'. Gandhi cited data collected by the Congress from an assembly constituency in Karnataka, where the party checked the photographs and names of electors physically and reportedly found out that 150,000 votes were 'fake' out of a total of 65,000 voters. 'Out of 6.5 lakh voters, we found 1.5 lakh to be fake. It's all documented; we obtained physical papers from the Election Commission,' he claimed. He added: 'The truth is that the election system in India is already dead. Please remember one thing that the prime minister of India enjoys a very slim majority. If 10-15 seats were rigged, and we suspect the actual figures to be closer to 70-80 to 100, he would not have been the prime minister of the country... In the coming few days, we are going to prove to you without any doubt how a Lok Sabha election can be rigged, and it was rigged.' Gandhi said he will make public details of the 'anomalies' in voter list in the constituency in Karnataka on August 5 at Bengaluru's Freedom Park. Sharpening his attack on the ECI, the former Congress chief said, 'It's very clear that the institution that protects this (Constitution), and defends it has been obliterated and taken over.' Gandhi also said that he did not have the proof earlier and that is why he could not make such statements before. 'But, I am making this statement confidently now because I have 100% proof. And, whoever I have shown it to has fallen off the chair. They literally said how it is possible. But it is possible, it's happening, literally,' he added. The Congress has repeatedly accused the ECI of acting like a 'biased umpire', particularly in its handling of the 2024 general elections and multiple assembly polls. Later in the day, EC shared Gandhi's remarks on its official X account, saying: 'The statements made are Misleading and Baseless.' On Friday, too, the poll panel had termed the LoP's 'atom bomb' remark 'baseless and wild allegations'. The BJP, meanwhile, dared Gandhi to detonate at once the 'atom bomb of evidence of vote theft'. 'Rahul Gandhi says he is in possession of an atom bomb. If it is so, he should detonate it at once. He should just ensure that he is himself out of harm's way', said defence minister and former BJP president Rajnath Singh. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge alleged that voters were 'changed' in the Maharashtra assembly and Lok Sabha elections. 'How can there be nine voters in a small room and nine thousand voters in a single hostel in Maharashtra? Is this Election Commission or Modi ji's puppet,' he asked at the legal conclave on Saturday. Echoing Gandhi's recent warnings, Kharge asserted that accountability will follow for those in the poll body. 'Whether they are serving or retired, ECI officials won't be spared if they break the rules. They're in a dangerous position –– lying for the BJP –– and that cannot go on unchecked.' Slamming the contentious special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, Kharge described the exercise as a 'deliberate' move to disenfranchise the poor, marginalised and minorities even as he called the ECI a 'puppet' to the Narendra Modi-led government. 'If 6.5 to 10 million voters are being excluded in a state of 70 million, it's not an error, it's a calculated decision to remove the marginalised from the democratic process.' Kharge's comments come a day after ECI published the draft electoral rolls for poll-bound Bihar after the conclusion of the first phase of the SIR. ECI said of the 6.5 million names missing from the rolls, deaths accounted for 2.2 million, people who permanently shifted or not found accounted for 3.6 million and people enrolled in multiple places accounted for 700,000. The EC did not respond to the latest allegations, but said in a press note that along with the draft rolls, a list of voters who were part of the June 24 electoral roll but are missing from the new draft has been shared with political parties. A total of 1.60 lakh Booth Level Agents (BLAs), nominated by district presidents of the 12 political parties, are currently participating in the SIR process. The Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha also alleged that Opposition voices, including his own and Gandhi's, are routinely muffled in Parliament. 'Mics are switched off the moment we try to speak,' he said. 'Modi and Shah used to cheer when the former Rajya Sabha Chairman expelled us. This is what they call democracy.' (With PTI inputs)
Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
Bihar polls: INDIA bloc leaders to meet in Delhi on Aug 7, says Farooq
NC president Farooq Abdullah on Saturday said the Congress has convened a meeting of the Opposition leaders in New Delhi on August 7 to deliberate on Bihar Assembly polls to be held in October-November. He also expressed confidence over the restoration of J&K statehood. 'We have faith in the one who is the master of all. We will get our rights,' he said. Responding to a question on LS Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi claiming that his party has an 'atom bomb' of an evidence to prove 'vote chori', Abdullah said Gandhi 'has said that they have made such an arrangement that they will win the Bihar elections'. 'I am going to meet him. All the leaders (of INDIA bloc) have been called for a meeting on August 7 and I will find out (the truth),' he said. On BJP's claim about development post-Article 370 abrogation, Abdullah said, 'I will not say anything. Whatever the BJP says, it keeps on saying.' 'Trump also keeps on shouting that I got peace done. Today they have imposed 25% tariff on us… The material for our destruction is being prepared. All our industrialists are running away,' he said.
Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
‘Constitution under siege': Sonia accuses BJP-RSS of plotting ‘ideological coup'
Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi Saturday said the Constitution is 'under siege' as the ruling BJP is using its power to dismantle the very framework it long opposed. She accused the BJP-RSS of plotting 'an ideological coup' to replace 'our democratic republic with a theocratic corporate state serving the powerful few'. In her special message read out by former Union minister and Congress leader Salman Khurshid at the party's national legal conclave on 'Constitutional Challenges — Perspectives and Pathways', Sonia said the Congress will oppose all attempts to undermine the Constitution in Parliament, in courts and on the streets. She said the Congress's efforts were aimed at 'expanding rights, strengthening institutions and upholding dignity and inclusion'. 'Their (BJP-RSS) ideological forebears glorified Manusmriti, rejected the Tricolour, and envisioned a Hindu Rashtra where democracy is hollow… eroded institutions, criminalised dissent, targeted minorities and betrayed Dalits, Adivasis, OBCs…,' she said. 'Now they seek to erase socialism and secularism, pillars of Ambedkar's vision of equal citizenship. This is… an ideological coup replacing our democratic republic with a theocratic corporate state serving the powerful few.' The Constitution of India, the message stated, 'is more than a legal charter'; it is the moral foundation of our democracy, built on justice, liberty, equality, and fraternity 'shaped through the sacrifices and vision of the INC'. 'This is not just political, it is our ideological commitment to defend every Indian's dignity. I commend (Senior Advocate and Congress leader) Abhishek Manu Singhvi and his team for reigniting this vital conversation…,' Sonia said in her message.
