No Karnataka High Court relief for Priyank Kharge in RSS remarks case

In the magistrate court, Kharge opposed the maintainability of Tejas’s complaint on the ground that an RSS member filed it. Since the RSS is not a registered organisation with mandatory membership logs, its members lack the legal standing to sue for defamation, he argued.

Kharge further argued that Tejas had not produced any documentary proof establishing him as an RSS member and is therefore not an “aggrieved person” entitled to file the complaint.

Complainant’s assertions ‘prima facie sufficient’

The magistrate court had rejected Kharge’s contention as “wholly untenable and devoid of merit”. “On one hand, they seek to justify their statements by referring to the RSS and its members, while on the other hand they deny the existence of such members solely to defeat the maintainability of the complaint,” Special Judge Sandeep Patil said then.

The judge had further said Tejas’s assertions that “he is a Swayamsevak and is aggrieved thereby” were sufficient to constitute prima facie material for criminal defamation proceedings.

However, the magistrate court dropped the case against Congress leader Dinesh Gundu Rao. He said in the court that the statements were not directed against Tejas or any identifiable individual but were made while condemning the death threats Kharge and his family received.

While Tejas had challenged the magistrate court order dropping Rao from the case, the high court directed him also to approach the sessions court.