Privacy and the Press
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The Supreme Court on Monday declined AAP leader Sanjay Singh’s plea against summoning by a Gujarat court in a defamation case over his alleged remarks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s academic degree.
Dismissing the plea, a bench of Justice B R Gavai and Justice Sandeep Mehta said they were not convinced to interfere with the High Court order which had also refused to stay the trial.
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“We are not inclined to entertain the present petition,” the bench said, “The High Court has already observed that all contentions available to the parties are kept open. The trial court judge would not be influenced by any of the observations made in the impugned order.”
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In February, the Gujarat High Court had dismissed the plea by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Sanjay Singh seeking the quashing of summons against them in the defamation case.
Gujarat University Registrar Piyush Patel had filed a defamation case against Kejriwal and Sanjay Singh over their alleged remarks after the Gujarat High Court set aside an order of the Chief Information Commissioner for providing information about Modi’s academic degrees to them under the Right to Information Act.
On March 31, 2023, the Gujarat High Court had quashed a 2016 order of the Central Information Commission which directed the Gujarat University to provide information on Modi’s degree to Kejriwal.
A Gujarat metropolitan court had summoned Kejriwal and Singh in the defamation case over their sarcastic and derogatory statements in connection with Modi’s degree.
According to the Gujarat University, AAP leaders’ comments targeting the University were defamatory and hurt its prestige which has established its name among the public.
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