Ahmedabad court rejects Kejriwal, Sanjay Singh's plea in defamation case, upholds summons

Ahmedabad sessions court on Thursday declined to quash the summons issued to two AAP leaders –  Arvind Kejriwal and Sanjay Singh – by a trial court here in a defamation case.

A comprehensive order elaborating the court's decision is expected to be made public later in the day.

The decision came from the court of Additional Sessions Judge J.M. Brahmbhatt, who dismissed the criminal revision applications filed by the two leaders.

These applications had contested the summons issued by an Ahmedabad magistrate court. Both Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal and MP Singh are facing a criminal defamation case in the city.

Initially, they were summoned to appear before the court on April 15 and were subsequently issued fresh summons on May 23.

The defamation complaint was lodged by Gujarat University registrar Piyush Patel, who accused Kejriwal of defamation based on statements such as, "If PM studied from Delhi University, Gujarat University, then the Gujarat University should celebrate that their alumnus has become the Prime Minister and yet they are trying to hide. Degree is not being shown because maybe the degree is fake, forfeited," and "if the degree is there and it is real, then why is it not being given?"

According to the complaint, these statements were made in the presence of the media and were disseminated through Twitter, with the intention of tarnishing the reputation of the university, despite the knowledge that such remarks could be defamatory.

These remarks by the AAP leaders came after the Gujarat High Court had overturned a Central Information Commission (CIC) order that had directed the university to "search for information" regarding Prime Minister Narendra Modi's degrees, as alleged by Patel.