On Thursday, the Delhi High Court declined to dismiss the defamation case against Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, which was filed in response to his alleged remark about a "scorpion on shivling" directed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Justice Anoop Kumar Mendiratta rejected Shashi Tharoor's plea to dismiss the defamation proceedings. The Delhi High Court, which had previously stayed the criminal proceedings on October 16, 2020, has now lifted that interim order. The court has instructed the parties to appear before the trial court on September 10.

“No grounds are made out for quashing the proceedings,” the judge said while pronouncing the order.

Tharoor sought to overturn the trial court's April 27, 2019, order that summoned him as an accused in the criminal defamation case brought by BJP leader Rajiv Babbar. He also requested the quashing of Babbar's November 2, 2018, complaint. The criminal complaint alleged that Tharoor's statement had offended Babbar's religious sentiments.

In October 2018, Tharoor had described an unnamed RSS leader’s comparison of Prime Minister Modi to "a scorpion sitting on a Shivling" as an "extraordinarily striking metaphor."

Mr Tharoor was granted bail in the case in June 2019 by the trial court.

The complainant had said, "I am a devotee of Lord Shiva... However, the accused (Tharoor) completely disregarded the sentiments of crores of Shiva devotees, (and) made the statement which hurt the sentiments of all Lord Shiva devotees, both in India and outside the country." The complaint was filed under sections 499 (defamation) and 500 (punishment for defamation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).