National desk
10 September
Sandeep Dhand Ludhiana
The Supreme Court today provided relief to Shashi Tharoor in a defamation case related to his “scorpion on Shivling” comment aimed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The court has stayed the lower court’s action against Tharoor, offering him temporary reprieve.
The case originated from a complaint filed by BJP leader Rajiv Babbar, who took offense to Tharoor’s remarks. Tharoor had previously sought to have the defamation proceedings quashed by the Delhi High Court, but his request was denied on August 29. Following this, Tharoor approached the Supreme Court to challenge the decision.
A bench comprising Justice Rishikesh Roy and Justice R. Mahadevan issued a notice to the Delhi Police and Rajiv Babbar, requesting their response within four weeks. Tharoor’s lawyer, Muhammad Ali Khan, argued that the complainant could not be considered a victim since Tharoor was merely quoting a six-year-old article from a magazine. Khan emphasized that no objections were raised when the article was originally published, but the complainant later viewed Tharoor’s reference to it as defamatory.
The Supreme Court’s intervention has temporarily halted the lower court’s proceedings, giving Tharoor some relief as the case continues.