PM Degree row: Gujarat High Court dismisses pleas by Arvind Kejriwal and Sanjay Singh seeking separate trials

Ahmedabad: In further setback to former Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party's national convener Arvind Kejriwal and his party colleague Sanjay Singh, the Gujarat high court on Tuesday dismissed their petitions seeking separate trials of criminal defamation cases against them.

The two top AAP leaders are facing criminal charges filed by state run Gujarat University in connection with the two leaders' alleged defamatory remarks related to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's academic degrees.

Justice MR Mengdey pronounced the verdicts as "dismissed." On December 22, the court concluded the argument and had reserved the verdict.

The AAP leaders had moved the high court challenging sessions court's order which had dismissed their revision application demanding separate trials. They have sought separate trials on the ground that their remarks were made on different dates and time.

In 2023, Gujarat University filed a criminal defamation case against Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, and Singh, AAP's Rajya Sabha MP, for making "sarcastic and derogatory" statements against the varsity with regard to PM Modi's degree. The varsity has alleged that the two leaders made derogatory statements in the press which "tarnished its goodwill image."

These remarks were made after the two leaders reacted to a Gujarat high court order which quashed chief information commission's, New Delhi, order directing Gujarat University to provide post graduate degree of Prime Minister Narendra Modi under Right to Information Act (RTI) to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. The high court had also imposed a cost of Rs25,000 on Kejriwal as a fine.

"A few degrees here and there....if the degree is there and it is genuine, then why is the degree not being given? Why Gujarat University and Delhi University are not providing the degrees? Why are you not giving information?... The degree is not being given because the degree may be fake. If the Prime Minister studied from Delhi University and Gujarat University, then Gujarat University should celebrate the fact that he is our boy who became the Prime Minister of the country. But the varsity is trying to hide the degree," are some of the alleged derogatory remarks Kejriwal and Singh are reported to have made in the press conference as cited by Gujarat University in its complaint.