Supreme Court stays defamation proceedings against Arvind Kejriwal, Sanjay Singh in PM Modi degree row

The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the defamation proceedings initiated against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Member of Parliament Sanjay Singh for comments concerning the academic degree of Prime Minister Narendra Modi..The stay was granted for a period of four weeks.A bench of Justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta also asked the Gujarat High Court to expeditiously dispose of a plea for interim relief filed by the politicians in the matter during this time..The order came on a plea moved by Singh seeking the transfer of the case to a trial court outside the State of Gujarat. The transfer petition was, however, not entertained.Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi with advocates Vivek Jain and Karan Sharma appeared for Sanjay Singh before the apex court today..The defamation complaint against Kejriwal and Singh was filed by Gujarat University which alleged that the two politicians made "defamatory" statements against it for not disclosing the degree of Prime Minister Modi. A magistrate summoned them to face trial in this defamation case in April last year. In September last year, the Gujarat High Court declined to hear on priority the appeals filed by Kejriwal and Singh against the summons issued to them by the trial court.The High Court had in August last year refused to grant an interim stay on these proceedings, which was upheld by the top court..The defamation case arose after Gujarat High Court had ruled in March 2023 that the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) need not furnish the degree and post-graduate degree certificate of Prime Minister Narendra Modi under the Right to Information Act (RTI Act).Single-judge Justice Biren Vaishnav set aside the order of the Chief Information Commission (CIC) directing the public information officer (PIO) of PMO and the PIOs of Gujarat University and Delhi University to furnish details of Modi's graduate and post-graduate degrees. Pertinently, the High Court imposed costs of ₹25,000 on Arvind Kejriwal as well.In November 2023, Justice Vaishnav rejected a review plea challenging the correctness of this verdict and opined that it was justified to impose the costs since Kejriwal had misused the RTI Act to politicise the issue. In December 2023, Kejriwal filed an appeal challenging the single-judge's decision before a division bench of the High Court. This appeal is still pending before the High Court.