On Tuesday, Justice Ravinder Dudeja said the case “required consideration” and issued a notice to Tharoor.
NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has asked Congress MP Shashi Tharoor to give his reply on a petition filed by BJP leader Rajeev Chandrasekhar. The plea challenges a lower court’s decision to reject Chandrasekhar’s defamation complaint against Tharoor.
On Tuesday, Justice Ravinder Dudeja said the case “required consideration” and issued a notice to Tharoor. The court was hearing a revision petition filed by Chandrasekhar after a magistrate’s court dismissed his complaint on February 4.
The complaint was about certain remarks Tharoor allegedly made on national television during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. According to Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Tharoor said that he had “bribed” voters in the Thiruvananthapuram constituency. Chandrasekhar claimed these statements were “false” and “derogatory”.
He alleged that Tharoor made these accusations “with the intent to lower his reputation and to impact the result of the last general elections while knowing fully well that the statements were false.”
Chandrasekhar’s senior lawyer told the High Court that the magistrate’s court had wrongly ignored the evidence and ruled that no defamation had taken place. He said the lower court’s conclusion was not supported by the facts.
Earlier this year, on February 4, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Paras Dalal dismissed the defamation complaint and refused to summon Shashi Tharoor. The magistrate observed that, prima facie, “no ingredients of defamation” were present in the complaint.
The Delhi High Court will now hear the matter again on September 16.
Case Title: Dr. Rajeev Chandrashekhar v. Dr. Shashi Tharoor
