- Supreme Court urged BJP's Rajiv Babbar to close defamation case against Shashi Tharoor
- Justices questioned why public figures should be sensitive to such metaphorical statements
- Supreme Court previously stayed all proceedings on Mr Tharoor's plea against the defamation case
The Supreme Court on Friday urged BJP leader Rajiv Babbar to close the defamation case against Congress MP Shashi Tharoor over the latter's statement comparing Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a scorpion sitting on a Shivling (symbolic representation of Lord Shiva).
A bench of Justices MM Sundresh and N Kotiswar Singh asked why people in public life should be touchy about such statements.
"Let us close all these things. Why to get so touchy about all this? This way, administrators, political persons and judges come in the same group and have thick skin," the top court remarked.
Supreme Court was hearing a plea by the senior Congress leader against a Delhi High Court order refusing to quash the case against him.
For now, the Court has adjourned the matter on a request by the counsel for the Rajiv Babbar.
This is not the first time that the Supreme Court has emphasised the futility of this case.
Last year, while issuing notice on Mr Tharoor's plea, a bench of Justice Hrishikesh Roy and Justice Mahadevan had stayed all proceedings till further orders.
While staying the proceedings, the bench had remarked that the metaphor can be interpreted to be showing the person's (PM Narendra Modi) invincibility and it does not understand why someone has taken objection here.
Justice Hrishikesh Roy remarked, "It is basically a figure of speech which uses words and phrases and applies to object and action with no relation to object and action...I do not know why someone has taken objection here."
Delhi High Court had refused to quash defamation case against Congress MP Shashi Tharoor over his alleged "scorpion on Shivling" remark against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Mr Tharoor sparked controversy after he compared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a scorpion sitting on a Shivling while speaking at the Bengaluru Literary Festival.
Mr Tharoor claimed that an unnamed RSS leader had compared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to "a scorpion sitting on a Shivling".
"(PM) Modi is like a scorpion sitting on a Shivling. You cannot remove him with your hand and you cannot hit it with a 'chappal' (slipper) either," Mr Tharoor said while recalling what an RSS member had told a journalist in 2012.
He said that there is an extraordinarily striking metaphor expressed by an unnamed RSS source to journalist Vinod Jose of 'The Caravan', who expressed their frustration with their inability to curb PM Modi. Mr Tharoor also shared a tweet saying that the quote had been in public domain since 2012 and he was merely quoting another person, Gordhan Zadaphia.
