The Metropolitan Court in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad in the case observed and has dismissed an application moved by the Delhi Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal opposing criminal prosecution in the defamation complaint lodged by Gujarat University against him.
In the present case, the complaint has been filed by the Gujarat University over the alleged remarks made by Kejriwal in connection with the academic degree of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The application moved by Kejriwal’s before the Metropolitan Court stated that he cannot be prosecuted without obtaining prior government sanction as per Section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, CrPC as he is a public servant.
The court stated that Section 197 CrPC mandates prior sanction from a competent officer to prosecute a government servant for an alleged criminal act done in the discharge of his official duty.
The counsel appearing for the Gujarat University while opposing the plea of Delhi Chief Minister emphasized that the expression of defamatory statements does not fall within the purview of discharging official duties. It was also contended that obtaining sanctions was unnecessary in the present case. The court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate SJ Panchal having heard both parties rejected the plea of Kejriwal’s wherein the court stated that no such sanction was necessary. The criminal complaint filed by Gujarat University, through its Registrar Dr Piyush M.Patel under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code alleged that the statements of Kejriwal and AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh have been referred to, accusing them of making sarcastic and the defamatory statements in press conferences and on Twitter handles targeting the university over Modi’s degree.
Therefore, the complaint stated that the alleged statement was made right after the order of Gujarat High Court’s to quash and set aside the 2016 order of the Central Information Commission, CIC wherein the court directed the Gujarat University to provide ‘information regarding degrees in the name of Mr Narendra Damodar Modi” to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Further, the complaint stated that immediately after the Gujarat High Court’s order, Kejriwal made defamatory statements against Gujarat University in a press conference despite being aware of the fact that the Prime Minister’s degree had been published on the University’s website long back.
It has also been contended by the University that in its complaint that CM Kejriwal made the statements in his ‘personal capacity’ and ‘not affairs of the State’. This year, in April, the additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Jayeshbhai Chovatiya found that prima facie, both Kejriwal and Singh appeared to have targeted the Gujarat University as the words uttered by them were sarcastic and meant to target the Gujarat University’s image in the minds of the people. With this, the court had summoned both the AAP Leaders.
The court in the case observed that it is natural that due to the statements of the accused people who know the credit of Gujarat University and all the people who do not know Gujarat University will develop distrust towards Gujarat University.
It has also been opined by the said court that if the political office bearers, instead of fulfilling their duty to their people, do any work directly or indirectly for their personal enmity or selfishness, to harm the opponents or the same person, and if they utter any such words, those words will be considered a violation of the trust placed by the people and the words uttered will be considered personal.