'Why be so touchy': SC extends relief to Tharoor

THE Supreme Court on Friday extended the stay on trial court proceedings against Congress MP Shashi Tharoor in a defamation case filed by BJP leader Rajiv Babbar against the former's alleged "scorpion on Shivling" remark targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

- SUCHITRA KALYAN MOHANTY @ New Delhi

Asking the complainant's lawyer, "why be so touchy", a two-judge bench of Justices M M Sundresh and N Kotiswar Singh observed, "Why did he (Babbar) want to be touchy about all this, as administrators, political personalities and judges have sufficiently thicker skin."

The apex court had stayed the trial court's proceedings last September. Tharoor made the alleged remark in November 2018 at the Bangalore Literature Festival, where he said that "Mr Modi is a scorpion sitting on a Shivling." The defamation case followed.

In his response, Tharoor submitted that Babbar's complaint was baseless and misleading, and claimed that the trial court's summons was erroneous and contrary to the principles of criminal jurisprudence.