Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha withdrew the criminal defamation case against Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday.
The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday disposed of Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s plea seeking quashing of the criminal defamation case filed against him by Congress MP and senior advocate Vivek Tankha in view of a settlement between the two parties.
A bench of justices MM Sundresh and N Kotiswar Singh recorded the withdrawal of the proceedings by Tankha and closed the case pending before the court.
In April 2025, the SC had asked Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha to amicably settle the defamation case lodged against the union minister and two other BJP MPs Vishnu Datt Sharma and MLA Bhupendra Singh.
On Tuesday, the apex court was informed about the out of court settlement.
The defamation cases arose from alleged statements made by Chouhan and others in December 2021 in connection with Supreme Court proceedings relating to OBC reservation in Madhya Pradesh Panchayat elections, in which Tankha had appeared as counsel.
Tankha alleged that he was falsely portrayed as being against OBC reservation. In the impugned order, the Madhya Pradesh high court had declined to interfere with the criminal proceedings, holding that it was not a stage to discard the material placed by the complainant as inadmissible.
It was further held that issues such as good faith and public good under the exceptions to Section 499 of the IPC required a trial.
