Delhi HC Refuses to Quash Defamation Case against Shashi Tharoor

The Delhi High Court on Thursday declined to quash the defamation proceedings against Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, which were initiated following his alleged “scorpion on shivling” remark aimed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Justice Anoop Kumar Mendiratta rejected Tharoor’s plea challenging the ongoing defamation proceedings. The high court, which had previously stayed the criminal proceedings against Tharoor in the defamation complaint on October 16, 2020, has now lifted the interim order. The parties have been directed to appear before the trial court on September 10.
“No grounds are made out for quashing the proceedings,” the judge stated.

The Congress leader had sought to set aside the trial court’s April 27, 2019 order, which summoned him as an accused in the criminal defamation complaint filed by BJP leader Rajiv Babbar. He had also sought to quash the complaint filed on November 2, 2018.

The criminal complaint was lodged against Tharoor in the trial court by Babbar, who claimed that his religious sentiments were hurt by the Congress leader’s statement.

“I am a devotee of Lord Shiva… However, the accused (Tharoor) completely disregarded the sentiments of crores of Shiva devotees and made the statement which hurt the sentiments of all Lord Shiva devotees, both in India and abroad,” the complainant stated.

In October 2018, Tharoor had asserted that an unnamed RSS leader compared Prime Minister Modi to “a scorpion sitting on a Shivling,” describing it as “an extraordinarily striking metaphor.”

In June 2019, the Congress MP was granted bail in the case by the trial court.

The complaint was filed under sections 499 (defamation) and 500 (punishment for defamation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).