India, March 14 -- The Supreme Court on Friday ordered status quo in a defamation case filed against BJP leader Koustav Bagchi, who is accused of sharing on social media excerpts from a book containing allegations about the alleged private life of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

A bench comprising Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan issued a notice to the West Bengal Government on a plea filed by Bagchi against an order of the Calcutta High Court.

The High Court had dismissed his petition challenging a trial court order issuing him a summons in the defamation case. The dispute originated from a book first published in 2015, stating that the West Bengal chief minister married someone clandestinely.

It also published some...