Smriti Irani and Sanjay Nirupam had filed defamation cases against each other.
Union Minister Smriti Irani has been issued a notice by the Supreme Court in a case connected to two cross defamation complaints filed by her and Congress leader Sanjay Nirupm against each other. The top court today agreed to examine Mr Nirupam's appeal for cancelling the defamation case filed against him by Ms Irani in 2013.
The Congress leader had challenged in the Supreme Court, a Delhi High Court order that rejected his request to cancel the summons issued against him. The high court, however, had cancelled the summons against Ms Irani in the defamation complaint filed against her by Mr Nirupam.
The high court, in December last year, had said the case against Sanjay Nirupam will continue.
Mr Nirupam, a former Congress lawmaker, had filed the complaint against Smriti Irani, alleging that on December 20, 2012, when the Gujarat assembly election results were announced, the BJP leader had made "defamatory and scurrilous comments" against him during a television debate "by making direct aspersions on the character of the complainant (Sanjay Nirupam)". The two leaders had appeared on the show together.
Earlier, Ms Irani had filed a complaint against Mr Nirupam for allegedly defaming her during the same debate on a private television news channel and a trial court had framed charges against the Congress leader for using derogatory and indecent language against her.
"Why do you go for TV debates when you enter into a fight and then go to the court," the top court bench, headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, told Sanjay Nirupam's lawyer.
Ms Irani had alleged in her complaint that Mr Nirupam had questioned her credentials to analyse election results.