New Delhi. The Delhi High Court on Thursday refused to quash the defamation proceedings against Congress leader Shashi Tharoor for his alleged “scorpion on Shivling” remark in reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Justice Anoop Kumar Mendiratta dismissed Tharoor’s petition challenging the defamation proceedings.
The high court had on October 16, 2020 stayed the criminal proceedings against Tharoor in the defamation complaint. It today vacated its interim order and directed the concerned parties to appear before the trial court on September 10.
While pronouncing the order on Thursday, the judge said, “There is no basis to quash the proceedings.” Tharoor had requested the cancellation of the lower court’s order of April 27, 2019.
The trial court had summoned Tharoor as an accused in a criminal defamation complaint filed by BJP leader Rajiv Babbar. He had also requested to quash the complaint filed on November 2, 2018. Babbar had filed a criminal complaint against Tharoor in the trial court and claimed that his religious sentiments were hurt by the Congress leader’s statement. In October 2018, Tharoor had claimed that an unnamed Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader compared Prime Minister Modi to a “scorpion sitting on a Shivling”. Tharoor was granted bail in the related case by the trial court in June 2019.
The complainant had said, “I am a devotee of Lord Shiva… However, the accused (Tharoor) completely disrespected the sentiments of crores of Shiva devotees (and) made a statement which hurt the sentiments of all Lord Shiva devotees in India and outside the country.” The complaint was filed under Sections 499 (defamation) and 500 (punishment for defamation) of the Indian Penal Code.