AHMEDABAD: The Ahmedabad sessions court on Tuesday rejected a plea by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and MP Sanjay Singh, seeking an expedited hearing of their revision petition, aiming for it to take place before August 29—a date determined by the Gujarat High Court in response to Kejriwal and Singh’s request for both a stay of trial and prompt revision petition hearing.

This request came after the Gujarat High Court dismissed their application for interim relief on August 11 though the court did issue a notice regarding their plea for a speedy hearing.

The Sessions Court today fixed the revision petition hearing for September 16, while the trial before the metropolitan court in the Gujarat University defamation case is to start on August 31, an advocate, appearing for Kejriwal who asked not to be named, said.

Kejriwal has also approached the Supreme Court against the order of rejection of stay by Gujarat High Court and the matter is tentatively fixed on August 25 for hearing before the Apex Court, the advocate said.

On August 11, the Gujarat High Court refused to provide interim stay to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders Kejriwal and Singh regarding the criminal defamation proceedings against them. The defamation case was initiated by the Gujarat University based on comments made by Kejriwal and Singh, which were deemed as “sarcastic” and “derogatory.”

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Singh and Kejriwal have been accused of making these comments at press conferences, which were then posted on Twitter targeting the university over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s educational qualifications.

A metropolitan court had previously summoned Kejriwal and Singh to appear on August 11 in response to the defamation case. The refusal of the high court to grant an interim stay earlier paved way for the proceedings to continue, pending the outcome of their revision plea in the sessions court.

The metropolitan court had in June summoned Kejriwal and Singh, a decision that the two political leaders challenged before the sessions court.

The metropolitan court’s direction was issued to the AAP leaders on June 8 as the court observed that prima facie there appeared to be a case against them under Indian Penal Code’s Section 500 (defamation).

The defamation case was filed over Kejriwal and Singh’s comments after the Gujarat high court in March this year set aside the chief information commissioner’s order asking the university to provide information on Modi’s degree. The high court slapped a ₹25,000 fine on Kejriwal who had sought the information.