The Supreme Court on Wednesday extended its earlier order exempting Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan from personal appearance before a trial court in connection with a criminal defamation case lodged against him by Congress MP Vivek Tankha. Tankha, also a senior advocate, has alleged that the union minister and BJP state president V D Sharma and former minister Bhupendra Singh carried out a "coordinated, malicious, false and defamatory" campaign against him for political mileage, accusing him of opposing OBC reservation in the 2021 Panchayat election in Madhya Pradesh. A bench comprising Justices MM Sundresh and Rajesh Bindal deferred to March 26 the hearing on a plea of Chouhan and two other BJP leaders. The top court was hearing the appeal of Chouhan against the October 25 order of the Madhya Pradesh High Court refusing to quash the defamation case. While Chouhan was represented by senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, Tankha was represented by senior lawyer Kapil Si