New Delhi, October 21: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea filed by former Delhi Chief Minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal challenging an order of the Gujarat High Court refusing to quash summons in a defamation case over his alleged remarks over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's educational qualification.
A bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and S V N Bhatti noted that a separate bench of the apex court had junked the plea filed by AAP leader Sanjay Singh on April 8 in the same case. "We must have a consistent approach," said the bench.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the former Delhi Chief Minister, told the bench that there was no statement made against the University and hence, it could not have filed any defamation complaint.
Seeking disclosure of the degree of persons in public life cannot lead to a defamation action, he added.
Gujarat University Registrar Piyush Patel had filed a defamation case against Kejriwal and Sanjay Singh over their alleged comments after the Gujarat High Court set aside an order of the Chief Information Commissioner for providing information about the Prime Minister's degrees to them under the RTI Act.
The Gujarat High Court had on February 16 dismissed the pleas of Singh and Kejriwal seeking quashing of the summons issued against them in the case.
Both politicians had challenged in the high court the summons issued by a trial court in the case filed by the Gujarat University and the subsequent order of the sessions court dismissing their revision pleas against the summons.
