The Supreme Court on Monday refused to quash the summons issued to Arvind
Kejriwal in file against him by Gujarat University for questioning the academic
degree of Arvind Kejrival.
A bench headed by Justice Hrishikesh Roy and Justice SVN Bhatti without goin
into merits held that no relief could be given to Kejriwal and co-accused Sanjay in
a defamation case stating that “ We would not like to entertain present plea. The
same is dismissed’’.
Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi , who appeared for Kejriwal argued that
he had appeared in Sanjay Singh’s case too but he has not brought the statements
made by Singh and requested the court to give 10 days time to file a comparative
chart of a statements passed by two accused. He also argued that the statements
were not made against the University and no harm was caused to University and
it’s Registrar . He also added “ We live in a democracy. How can it be said that
you have no right to know the academic qualification of the Prime Minister, who is
the Chief of the Executive?
Whereas, Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta argued that the accused has a habit
of passing defamatory remarks and later saying sorry to them. He added that his
client would not like to accept apology this time.
The bench then dismissed the plea mentioning all the issues will be raised in trial.
The complaint arose when two AAP leader held conference in April 2023 after the
Gujarat High Court directs the University to produce a Post-Graduation degree of
Prime Minister Modi to Kejriwal under Right to Information Act. The university
mentioned it was available on its website which was denied by AAP leader and the
case is pending before the court of additional chief metropolitan magistrate
(ACMM) at Gheekanta in Ahemdabad.
