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In a relief for Shashi Tharoor, the Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed proceedings before a trial court in a defamation case lodged against the Congress MP for his alleged "scorpion on Shivling" remarks targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
A bench of Justice Hrishikesh Roy and Justice R Mahadevan issued notice to the Delhi Police and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Rajiv Babbar who is the complainant in the case.
Tharoor was supposed to appear before a trial court in New Delhi on Tuesday in pursuance to a Delhi high court order.
"Issue notice returnable in four weeks. In the meantime, further proceedings in pursuance to the impugned judgement are stayed," the bench said.
Tharoor has moved the top court against the Delhi high court order which refused to quash defamation proceedings against him on August 29.
During the hearing, advocate Mohammed Ali Khan, appearing for Tharoor, submitted that the complainant cannot be said to be an aggrieved party in the case and members of political party also cannot be said to be an aggrieved party.
Khan added that Tharoor's comment was protected under the immunity clause of the defamation law, which stipulates that any statement made in good faith was not criminal. He stated the High Court has expanded the definition of "person aggrieved" in a defamation case to unacceptable limits.
The lawyer said Tharoor made a reference to an article published in the Caravan magazine six years before the statement was made.
"None had any grievance to the article and the uttered sentence as published in the magazine. However, when Tharoor made a reference to the same article, same was perceived as defamatory by the complainant," the lawyer said.
The top court expressed surprise that in 2012, the statement was not defamatory when the article was originally published.
"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 remarked during the hearing.
The top court on Monday had agreed to consider listing Tharoor's plea against the high court order.
The high court, which on October 16, 2020, stayed the criminal proceedings against the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram in the defamation complaint, vacated the interim order and directed the parties to appear before the trial court on September 10.
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 had said prima facie, the remarks defamed the prime minister, the ruling BJP as well as its office-bearers and members.
Dismissing Tharoor's petition seeking quashing of the defamation proceedings pending before a trial court, the high court had said there was sufficient material before the judicial magistrate for summoning him under section 500 (punishment for defamation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The Congress leader had sought setting aside the trial court's April 27, 2019 order summoning him as an accused in the criminal defamation complaint filed by Rajiv Babbar as also the November 2, 2018 complaint.
The criminal complaint was filed against Tharoor in the trial court by Babbar, who claimed that his religious sentiments were hurt by the Congress leader's statement.
In October 2018, Tharoor had claimed that an unnamed RSS leader had compared Modi to "a scorpion sitting on a Shivling". The Congress leader had said it was an "extraordinarily striking metaphor".