A court here rejected requests by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) member Rajya Sabha Sanjay Singh to adjourn their trial in a criminal defamation case.
Sessions Court Judge AJ Kanani rejected AAP leaders' request for the Metropolitan Court to temporarily adjourn the trial in a criminal defamation case filed by Gujarat University over 'sarcastic' statements and their 'insult' regarding Prime Minister Narendra Modi's diploma.
The court ordered it on Saturday and kept the case for a further hearing on August 21, after the respondent from the University of Gujarat asked for time, their lawyer Punit Juneja said on Monday.
Kejriwal and Singh filed a request for review at the Session Court to object to the summons of the Municipal Court in the defamation case and have requested the Court of Provisional Hearing pending their primary claim, but was dismissed by the court, Juneja said.
The Metropolitan Court ordered the two leaders to remain in court on August 11 in response to a summons issued to them on the matter. "We have filed a request with the Court for Provisional Hearing in the ongoing criminal defamation hearings at the Metropolitan Court here. The court on Saturday denied our plea. and adjourned the case to August 21," Juneja said.
The court refused to grant them provisional measures in this case on the grounds that the two leaders had told the Metropolitan Court that they would remain present by August 11. Juneja said they would seek remedy in the Gujarat High Court.
The Metropolitan Court summoned the two leaders after noticing that on the surface there was a case against them under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Gujarat University registrar Piyush Patel filed a lawsuit against Kejriwal and Singh over their comments after the Gujarat High Court overturned the Chief Information Commissioner's order on Prime Minister Modi's level.
The complainant said it had made "defamatory" statements at press conferences and on Twitter targeting the university about Mr.
According to the complainant, their comments directed at Gujarat University are defamatory and damage the reputation of the university that has made its name to the public.
Their statements, he said, were satirical and were intended to intentionally damage the university's reputation.
The comments cited and attributed to Kejriwal by the Complainant are as follows:
"If there is a degree and it is a real degree then why is it not granted?", "They don't grant the degree because it could be fake" and "If the Prime Minister studied at 'Delhi University and Gujarat University, then Gujarat University should celebrate that its students have become prime ministers of the country' and so on. Singh said that "they (GU) are trying to prove that the prime minister's fake diploma is real."
The complainant said their statements would lead one to believe that GU was giving out factual and bogus information.
