New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the defamation proceedings initiated against Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and MP Sanjay Singh for their comments regarding Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s academic degree.The stay has been granted for a period of four weeks, Bar and Bench reported.A bench comprising Justices B.R. Gavai and Sandeep Mehta not only issued the stay but also directed the Gujarat high court to promptly dispose of a plea for interim relief filed by the two during this period.The order has come in response to a plea by Sanjay Singh seeking the transfer of the case to a trial court outside Gujarat. The transfer petition, however, was not entertained by the Supreme Court, the report said.The defamation complaint against Kejriwal and Singh was lodged by Gujarat University, accusing the politicians of making “defamatory” statements on not disclosing Modi’s degree.“If the PM studied from Delhi University and Gujarat University, then Gujarat University should celebrate that their alumnus has become the Prime Minister and yet they are trying to hide and not disclosing the degree,” is one of the statements the University has cited in its complaint.For Singh, the university has cited this statement: “Prime Minister is putting his all to prove a fake degree as right.”The Gujarat high court, in September last year, had declined to hear the appeals filed by the Delhi politicians on priority against the trial court’s summons. The high court had also earlier refused to grant an interim stay on the proceedings, a decision that was upheld by the Supreme Court.The defamation case arose after the Gujarat high court, in March 2023, ruled that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) was not obligated to furnish Prime Minister Modi’s graduate and postgraduate degrees under the Right to Information Act (RTI Act).A single-judge bench of Justice Biren Vaishnav set aside the Chief Information Commission’s order directing the disclosure of Modi’s academic details. The high court also imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on Kejriwal.In November 2023, Justice Vaishnav rejected a review plea challenging the correctness of his verdict and said that the fine was justified because Kejriwal had misused the RTI Act to politicise the issue.Kejriwal had filed an appeal challenging the single-judge’s decision in December 2023 before a division bench of the high court. This appeal is still pending before the court.