The Delhi High Court on Wednesday stayed a trial courts order in a criminal defamation case against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The HC has directed him to appear in the court on August 12 to explain his alleged Thulla remark against Delhi Police.

On May 23, a trial court in Delhi had given clean chit to Kejriwal citing that his remark was directed towards inefficient police officers within the department.

The courts order had come on a criminal defamation complaint filed against Kejriwal by a constable of Govindpuri Police Station who had claimed he was insulted by the CMs remark in a TV interview in which he had referred to police as thulla.

The court, while dismissing the complaint, said, To be more precise the said word appears to have been made with reference to those police officers who lack in efficiency.

It also said the statement given by Kejriwal during his interview on a TV channel on July 17, it is not per se defamatory in as much as the meaning of term thulla suggests that it is relative term to denote the performance level of a worker against fellow workers.

It is neither directed to the complainant individually nor to entire Delhi Police as a class but to an indeterminate and unidentifiable class of inefficient and corrupt police officials... Thus, there are no sufficient grounds to proceed further against the respondent (Kejriwal) and to summon him under section 500 of the IPC, the court said.