The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s plea against a High Court order rejecting his request to stay the criminal defamation proceedings filed by the Gujarat University over his remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s educational qualifications.
Gujarat University Registrar Piyush Patel had filed a defamation case against Mr. Kejriwal and AAP leader Sanjay Singh over their alleged comments after the Gujarat High Court set aside an order of the Chief Information Commissioner for providing information about Mr. Modi’s degrees to them under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
A Bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and S.V.N. Bhatti said it was not issuing notice on the plea as the matter was pending before the Gujarat High Court and was listed for hearing on August 29.
The Bench said the Gujarat University and Mr. Kejriwal could raise their grievances before the High Court.
At the outset, senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Mr. Kejriwal, said the High Court had wrongly refused to grant interim stay on the defamation proceedings against him.
Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the University, said there was suppression of facts by Mr. Kejriwal.
The Gujarat High Court had on August 11 rejected Mr. Kejriwal and Mr. Singh’s plea seeking an interim stay on the criminal defamation proceedings against them.
A Gujarat metropolitan court had earlier summoned Mr. Kejriwal and Mr. Singh in the defamation case over their “sarcastic” and “derogatory” statements in connection with Mr. Modi’s degree.
