Supreme Court stays criminal defamation proceedings against Shashi Tharoor ‘Scorpion Sitting on a Shivling’ Remark on PM Narendra Modi

Today (September 10, 2024), the Supreme Court (SC) bench of Justice Hrishikesh Roy and Justice R Mahadevan stayed the criminal defamation proceedings against Congress MP Shashi Tharoor for a ‘scorpion sitting on a Shivling’ remark on Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi. These remarks were made by a Congress MP in 2018 while speaking at the Bangalore Literature Festival. Today, the bench was hearing Shashi Tharoor’s challenge to the August 29 order of the Delhi High Court that rejected his plea to quash the defamation case against him. While hearing the matter, Advocate Mohammed Ali Khan who appeared for Tharoor contended that the alleged remark was from an article published by The Caravan magazine in 2012, that compared Narendra Modi to a ‘scorpion sitting on a Shivling’. He added that the person quoted in The Caravan magazine made the same remark in 2012 in a video on a news channel later. Further, he argued that when the same was not defamatory in 2012 then how it become defamatory in 2018.

Justice Roy opined, “It is a metaphor. Eventually, it is a metaphor. The metaphor would refer to the invincibility of the person who is spoken about.” He further asked, “Can the metaphor not be understood as pointing out to the invincibility of the person?” The Counsel replied, the metaphor can be understood as ‘Can’t live with, can’t live without’. Adding to this, Justice Roy said that the metaphor is capable of being understood in multiple ways. He said, “I don't know why somebody has taken objection to this.” After hearing the matter today, the SC bench stayed the criminal defamation proceedings.