'Scorpion' remark against PM: Supreme Court extends stay on defamation proceedings against Shashi Tharoor

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor

The Supreme Court on Monday extended by four weeks the stay on the trial court proceedings against Congress MP Shashi Tharoor in a defamation case filed for his alleged ”scorpion on Shivling” remark targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A bench comprising Justices Hrishikesh Roy and SVN Bhatti has granted four weeks’ time to Delhi police and the complainant to file their responses to Tharoor’s plea. ”The interim order (of stay on the defamation proceedings) to continue,” directed the bench. The counsel appearing for Delhi police argued the main issue in the case was whether complainant Rajiv Babbar, a BJP leader, was an aggrieved party.

The top court, on September 10, had stayed the proceedings before the trial court in the defamation case filed against Tharoor. The Congress MP had moved the top court against the high court’s August 29 order, which refused to quash the defamation proceedings against him. Tharoor had sought setting aside the trial court’s April 27, 2019, order summoning him as an accused in the criminal defamation complaint. The 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”.