New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday extended for four weeks the stay on trial court proceedings against Congress MP Shashi Tharoor in a defamation case filed for allegedly making 'scorpion on Shivling' remark targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and SVN Bhatti has given four weeks' time to the Delhi Police and the complainant to file a reply to Tharoor's plea.

The bench directed that the interim order (staying defamation proceedings) will continue. Additional Solicitor General Rajkumar Bhaskar Thackeray, appearing for Delhi Police, said that the primary question is whether the complainant BJP leader Rajiv Babbar is the aggrieved party or not.

Thackeray and Babbar's lawyer asked for time

Later, the counsel for Thackeray and Babbar sought time to file their replies to the plea. On September 10, the apex court had stayed the defamation proceedings before the trial court in the case. Tharoor had moved the apex court against the August 29 order of the Delhi High Court which refused to quash the defamation proceedings against him and asked him to appear before the trial court on September 10.

Modi was compared to a scorpion sitting on a Shivling

It is noteworthy that in October 2018, Tharoor had allegedly claimed that an unnamed RSS leader had compared Modi to a "scorpion sitting on a Shivling".

The lawyer had argued in this case that Shashi Tharoor's comments are protected under the immunity clause of the defamation law, which stipulates that a statement made in good faith is not false. At the same time, the lawyer had further said in this case that Shashi Tharoor had referred to an article published in Caravan magazine six years before making the comment.

The Supreme Court expressed surprise

Given this, the Supreme Court had expressed surprise that the statement was not defamatory in 2012 when the article was originally published.

Regarding this, Justice Roy had said during the hearing, 'After all, this is a metaphor. I have tried to understand. It shows the invincibility of the person referred to (PM Modi).