Gujarat court summons Arvind Kejriwal in PM Modi's degree case

A court in Ahmedabad has issued summons to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party’s Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh in a criminal defamation complaint for their alleged sarcastic and derogatory statements against Gujarat University over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s academic degree.The court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Jayeshbhai Chovatiya on Saturday summoned the two AAP leaders on May 23, after observing that prima facie there appeared to be a case against them under the Indian Penal Code Section 500 (defamation) on a complaint filed by Gujarat University’s Registrar Piyush Patel. 

The court also ordered to delete ‘Chief Minister’ from Kejriwal’s name in the cause title of the case, saying the statements were made by him in his personal capacity.Kejriwal and Singh had made the comments after the Gujarat High Court passed an order setting aside the Chief Information Commissioner’s order asking Gujarat University (GU) to provide information on PM Modi’s degree.  Their comments targeting Gujarat University were defamatory and hurt the prestige of the institution which has established its name among the public, he said.

Gujarat University was established more than 70 years ago. It is reputed among the people and utterances by the accused will create mistrust about the university, the complainant’s lawyer Amit Nair argued.The complainant alleged the statements were defamatory towards the university because they were sarcastic and intended to intentionally hurt the prestige of the university. They were shared in the media and on Twitter handles with the same intention, he said.