PM Modi’s degree row: Supreme Court stays defamation proceedings against Arvind Kejriwal, Sanjay Singh in Gujarat court

New Delhi, January 16

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The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed criminal proceedings before a Gujarat court on a complaint filed by the Gujarat University against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and AAP MP Sanjay Singh for their alleged defamatory remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s educational qualifications.

A Bench led by Justice BR Gavai passed the stay order on Singh’s plea for transfer of the case out of Gujarat, preferably in Kolkata.

It also asked the Gujarat High Court to decide in four weeks the AAP leaders’ plea for quashing of summonses issued to them by the trial court.

Alleging bias in the proceedings before the trial court, Singh submitted that while his plea was pending before the high court, the trial judge was proceeding with the matter.

The top court had earlier refused to entertain Kejriwal’s plea challenging the high court order turning down his request to stay the criminal defamation proceedings.

Gujarat University Registrar Piyush Patel had filed a defamation case against Kejriwal and Singh over their alleged comments after the Gujarat High Court set aside an order of the chief information commissioner for providing information about Modi’s educational degrees to them under the RTI Act.

On August 11, 2023, the high court had rejected the AAP leaders’ plea seeking an interim stay on the criminal defamation proceedings against them.

A Gujarat metropolitan court had earlier summoned Kejriwal and Singh in the defamation case over their alleged “sarcastic” and “derogatory” statements in connection with Modi’s educational degrees.

A sessions court had rejected their plea for an interim stay on the trial, forcing them to move the high court.

Patel alleged that the two AAP leaders made “defamatory” statements at press conferences and on microblogging platform X, targeting the university over Modi’s degrees.

Their comments targeting the Gujarat University were defamatory and hurt the prestige of the institution, which has established its name among the public, he alleged.

On March 31 last year, the high court quashed a 2016 order of the Central Information Commission, which directed the Gujarat University to provide information on Modi’s educational degrees to Kejriwal, observing that the AAP chief’s RTI plea appeared to be “politically vexatious and motivated”, instead of being based on “sound public interest considerations”.