The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed further proceedings before a trial court in a defamation case against senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor over his alleged “scorpion sitting on Shivling” remark about Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Literature Festival in Bengaluru in November 2018.

Besides staying the defamation case proceedings against Tharoor, a bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and R Mahadevan issued notice to Delhi Police and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Rajiv Babbar, returnable after four weeks. Rajiv Babbar had complained against Tharoor’s remarks.

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“Issue notice, returnable in four weeks. Further proceedings in pursuance to the impugned judgment is stayed until further orders,” the bench ordered.

An advocate appearing for Tharoor told the bench that the statement was originally contained in an article published in 2012 by Caravan magazine and later Tharoor made the same statement in 2018.

Tharoor has approached the top court challenging the Delhi High Court’s August 29, 2024, order refusing to quash the defamation case.

The High Court in October 2020, had stayed the criminal proceedings in the defamation case against the Congress Lok Sabha member from Kerala (Thiruvananthapuram). However, on August 29, the High Court vacated the interim stay order and directed Tharoor to appear before the trial court on September 10.

The trial court had issued summons to Tharoor following the defamation case against him by Babbar.

The Congress leader had allegedly made the statement in November 2018 at the Bangalore Literature Festival.

Tharoor had allegedly said that “Mr Modi is a scorpion sitting on a Shivling.”