Jaipur, 19 March, 2012

The Rajasthan High Court today rejected a petition against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, filed by Youth Congress activist Charmesh Sharma for Modi’s remarks on late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Charmesh had filed petition seeking that Shri Modi should be booked for criminal defamation under sections 499 and 500 for his remarks on Nehru during a public rally at Gandhinagar on June 5 last year.

In his speech, Modi had said that Nehru had “done nothing for children.”

Charmesh said in the petition that he and other admirers of Nehru were “deeply hurt and pained” by Modi’s comments, which he had heard on a private television channel and read on a website.

Sharma had enclosed video recording of the telecast and photocopies of the website report with his petition.

Delivering the verdict on Charmesh’s plea, Justice Mahesh Chandra Sharma of Rajasthan High Court was of view that the court has no jurisdiction to commit a person for trail for criminal defamation under Section 500 of the IPC as neither the words were spoken nor any consequence of that has ensued in the jurisdiction of the courts in Bundi.

The High Court backed the verdict of lower court of Bundi that no action against Modi can ensue in Rajasthan for want of jurisdiction as also the complainant is not competent under Section 199 of the CrPC to file the complaint of defamation of Nehru for the simple reason that the law provides that only the “person aggrieved” can file a complaint. In the current case, only Nehru’s relatives are competent to file complaint but no such complaint has been filed so far.

The petitioner approached high court after his petition was rejected by the lower courts in Bundi. The chief judicial magistrate and additional sessions judge of Bundi had dismissed the plea of the complainant. They were of the view that the lower courts had no jurisdiction to commit a person for trial for criminal defamation under Section 500 of IPC as the words spoken had no consequence at any place falling in the jurisdiction of the courts in Bundi.

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