Court defers pronouncement of order on summoning Shinde

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Thursday deferred for tomorrow its order on whether to summon Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde in connection with a defamation case filed against him for his alleged `Hindu terror` remark.

Metropolitan Magistrate Amitabh Rawat, who was scheduled to pronounce his verdict on the petition today, listed it for tomorrow, saying he has not prepared the whole order. "I have not prepared the whole order. So come tomorrow. I will pass the order at 2 pm," the magistrate said. The court had already recorded the pre-summoning evidence of petitioner V P Kumar after it had heard his counsel Monika Arora, who had alleged that the home minister had "wilfully" made the "derogatory" remarks to cause "ill will and hatred among communities". Kumar, in his petition, had alleged that Shinde`s remarks were aimed at "polarising minority votes" in the 2014 general elections. "The impugned statement is not only defamatory in its natural meaning but also contains the imputation and insinuation that Hindu religion is involved in anti-national and terrorist activities," the petition had submitted, adding the minister "has used the word saffron as synonym of terrorism, which is totally absurd, wrong, mischievous and defamatory". According to the petition, Shinde, while addressing an AICC meeting at Jaipur earlier this year, had said "...We have got an investigation report that be it RSS or BJP, their training camps are promoting Hindu terrorism. We are keeping a strict vigil on all this." PTI