Thulla remark row: Delhi HC adjourns hearing till Oct 16, exempt Kejriwal from personal appearance

The Delhi High Court exempted Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal from personal appearance before a trial court till the next date of hearing in connection with a case where he referred to the Delhi Police as Thullas on Monday.

Thulla is a slang term for "policeman" and is often heard in the northern and eastern parts of India. The proper pronunciation of this word is "thoo-lah". It may also be spelled as "Thula" or "Thullah". The term is used to denote a stereotypical slow moving police constable with a big gut.

The high court also adjourned Arvind Kejriwal's plea seeking relief against the trial court order to October 16, 2017. 

Earlier, the court extended the relief, and had asked the chief minister to file his rejoinder to the reply by Delhi Police personnel, who has sought dismissal of Kejriwal's petition seeking stay and quashing of the trial court's order summoning him in a case.

A Saket court order had earlier asked Kejriwal to make a personal appearance in the criminal defamation complaint filed against him by police personnel.

The petitioner had alleged that Kejriwal had "crossed all limits of decency" by using the insulting word 'Thulla' for a policemen in an interview with a news channel.