PM Modi Degree Row: Relief For Arvind Kejriwal, Sanjay Singh As SC Stays Defamation Proceedings

The Supreme Court directed the Gujarat High Court to decide within four weeks regarding the AAP leaders' plea to quash the summonses issued by the trial court. 

According to the complaint, the comments made by the two leaders targeting Gujarat University were defamatory and hurt the prestige of the institution.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the proceedings before a trial court regarding a defamation complaint filed by Gujarat University against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and AAP MP Sanjay Singh. The complaint revolves around their alleged comments about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's educational qualifications, reported PTI.

Justices B R Gavai and Sandeep Mehta issued the order while hearing Singh's plea, which sought the transfer of the case from the Gujarat trial court to a location outside the state, preferably Kolkata.

As per the report, the apex court directed the Gujarat High Court to decide within four weeks regarding the AAP leaders' plea to quash the summonses issued by the trial court. 

The bench said in the meantime, the proceedings before the trial court will remain stayed.

In his plea filed in the top court through advocate Karan Sharma, Singh alleged bias in the proceedings before the trial court, saying while the plea was pending before the high court, the trial judge was proceeding with the matter, the PTI report added.

Last year in August, the top court refused to entertain Kejriwal's plea challenging the high court order that rejected his request to stay the criminal defamation proceedings filed by the university.

Gujarat University Registrar Piyush Patel had filed the defamation case against Kejriwal and 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.

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, reported PTI.

The comments made by the two leaders targeting Gujarat University were defamatory and hurt the prestige of the institution, the complaint alleged.

"Their statements were sarcastic and intentionally made to hurt the prestige of the university," Patel said in his complaint.

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 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".