Mehta said the degree had been uploaded on the university website and referred to the dismissal of the CIC order by the Gujarat High Court.Arguing that no case of defamation was made out, Singhvi stated that Kejriwal merely asked why the university was not publishing Modi’s degree.The bench, however, rejected Kejriwal’s plea.The high court had on February 16 dismissed the pleas by Singh and Kejriwal seeking quashing of the summons issued against them in the defamation case.Both had challenged in the high court the summons issued by a trial court in the case filed by the Gujarat University and the subsequent order of the sessions court dismissing their revision pleas against the summons.According to the complainant, the two politicians made “defamatory” statements at press conferences and on microblogging platform X, targeting the university over Modi’s degrees.Their comments against the Gujarat University were defamatory and hurt the prestige of the institution, which has established its name among the public, he alleged.”Their statements were sarcastic and intentionally made to hurt the prestige of the university,” he added.On March 31, 2023, the high court quashed the 2016 order of the CIC asking Gujarat University to provide information on Modi’s degrees to Kejriwal, and observed the AAP chief’s RTI plea appeared to be “politically vexatious and motivated” instead of being based on “sound public interest considerations”.
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