NEW DELHI : A Delhi court today once again deferred its order on whether to summon Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde in connection with a defamation case filed against him for his alleged ‘Hindu terror’ remark.
Metropolitan Magistrate Amitabh Rawat, who was scheduled to pronounce his verdict on the petition today, deferred it to May 22, saying he needed some clarification and asked the counsel for the petitioner to furnish some of the Supreme Court judgements to support the complaint.
“The two sections under which you are pressing for summons need some clarification. You have to file couple of judgements from the Supreme Court in regard to the complaint,” the court told Monika Arora, the counsel for petitioner V P Kumar.
“I have to pass a holistic order,” the magistrate said, adding, “Your complaint is under 153 (provocation with intent to cause riot) and 298 (Uttering words, etc., with deliberate intent to wound religious feelings), therefore, you place some judgements,” it said.
The counsel sought a day’s time to file some citations which was granted by the magistrate, saying, “I am giving a short date so that you may file the judgement.”
Yesterday, the court had deferred its order till today, saying it had not prepared the whole order.
Kumar, in his petition, had alleged that Shinde’s remarks were aimed at “polarising minority votes” in the 2014 general elections.
“The impugned statement is not only defamatory in its natural meaning but also contains the imputation and insinuation that Hindu religion is involved in anti-national and terrorist activities,” the petition had submitted, adding the minister “has used the word saffron as synonym of terrorism, which is totally absurd, wrong, mischievous and defamatory”.
According to the petition, Shinde, while addressing an AICC meeting at Jaipur earlier this year, had said “…We have got an investigation report that be it RSS or BJP, their training camps are promoting Hindu terrorism. We are keeping a strict vigil on all this.” (AGENCIES)