In a big jolt to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and party’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, the Gujarat High Court on Friday, declined to stay proceedings against them in a criminal defamation case related to PM Modi’s degree.
The case was filed against the two by Gujarat University, against which the leaders had appealed for a stay in proceedings.
A bench of Justice Samir J Dave passed this order after hearing the arguments of Arvind Kejriwal’s counsel and PP Mitesh Amin.
The contention of the accused was that they should be given time till their revision plea (challenging Metropolitan Court’s order issuing summons to them) in a sessions court was heard.
A metropolitan court in Ahmedabad had earlier summoned the duo for August 11 in the defamation case filed by the Gujarat University over their (Kejriwal & Singh) alleged derogatory statements made in connection with the controversy regarding Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s academic degree. Earlier, on August 5, the City Civil & Sessions Court Ahmedabad rejected their plea to stay the proceedings in the trial pending the disposal of their revision plea.
Challenging this order, both the AAP leaders had approached the Gujarat High Court. They had also prayed for the court’s direction for an expeditious hearing of the revision plea.
In the criminal complaint filed by Gujarat University, through its Registrar Piyush M Patel under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code, the alleged statements of Kejriwal and Singh had been referred to, accusing them of making sarcastic and defamatory statements in press conferences and on Twitter handles targeting the university over Modi’s degree.
If a degree is there and it is correct then why is it not being given… Why are Gujarat and Delhi University not giving degrees? The degree is not being given because the degree may be fake… If the Prime Minister studied from Delhi University, Gujarat University, then Gujarat University should celebrate that our boy has become the Prime Minister of the country. …it is trying to hide his degree…[University] put his all to prove a fake degree (of PM) as right],” is the statements that have been attributed to Kejriwal by the University in its complaint.”
The complaint states that the alleged statement was made right after the Gujarat High Court order quashing and setting aside the 2016 order of the Central Information Commission (CIC) directing the Gujarat University to provide “information regarding degrees in the name of Narendra Damodar Modi” to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
The complaint further states that immediately after the Gujarat High Court’s order, Kejriwal made defamatory statements against Gujarat University in a press conference despite being aware of the fact that the Prime Minister’s degree has been published on the University’s website long back.
Importantly, the university has also put up a contention in its complaint that CM Kejriwal made the statements in his “personal capacity” and “not affairs of the State”.
In April this year, the additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Jayeshbhai Chovatiya found that prima facie, both Kejriwal and Singh appeared to have targeted the Gujarat University as the words uttered by them were sarcastic and meant to target the university’s image in the minds of the people.
The court also opined that if the political office bearers, instead of fulfilling their duty to their people, do any work directly or indirectly for their personal enmity or selfishness, to harm the opponents or the same person, and if they utter any such words, those words will be considered a violation of the trust placed by the people and the words uttered will be considered personal. It is in that order that the court directed for their personal presence before it.
