'Leaders and judges should have thick skin', Suprene Court's Remarks on Defamation Case; Shashi Tharoor Gets Relief

New Delhi (The Uttam Hindu): Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who is facing a defamation case for his 'scorpion sitting on Shivling' statement on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, got a big relief from the Supreme Court on Friday. During the hearing of the case, the court made an important comment saying that people living in public life and judges should have a "thick skin" and should not take such statements to heart.

A bench of Justices M.M. Sundaresh and S.V.N. Bhatti advised both the petitioner and Tharoor to end the case. The bench said, "Let's end this matter. What is the need to be so sensitive about these things? Administrators and judges should have thick skin."

The controversy dates back to 2018, when Shashi Tharoor had allegedly said at the Bengaluru Literature Festival that an RSS leader had compared Prime Minister Modi to a 'scorpion sitting on a Shivling', which can neither be removed by hand nor hit with a slipper. Following this statement, BJP leader Rajiv Babbar had filed a defamation case against Tharoor.

Tharoor had sought quashing of the criminal proceedings against him, but the Delhi High Court rejected his plea. The High Court had held that Tharoor's statement was derogatory to the dignity of PM Modi and the RSS. Tharoor had approached the Supreme Court against this decision. Tharoor's lawyer argued in court that this statement was not his own, but he was citing an article published in a magazine.

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