Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) R K Gauba, who also dismissed Kesri's application for discharge, fixed January 17 and 18 next year for commencement of trial in the case after the former Congress chief pleaded `not guilty'.

`These allegations coming from the mouth of the leader of the oldest political party of the country are capable of being understood in a defamatory manner only...' Gauba said, quoting his predecessor Prem Kumar's April 1998 order summoning Kesri in the case.

Kesri had sought his discharge in the case in July, saying he had made the alleged defamatory statement against the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh `in good faith and for the protection of public good', and requested the court to recall the summons.

The RSS had dragged Kesri andtwo newspapers - the Times of India and the Nav Bharat Times - to court in April last year for allegedly defaming the organisation by holding it responsible for the Coimbatore bomb blasts during last year's Lok Sabha poll campaign.

The court asked Kesri to face trial and prove himself innocent.

`The accused (Kesri)... while seeking dropping of these proceedings is not restraining himself to the claim of a bonafide belief in the truth of his utterances, but has rather chosen to reiterate and re-assert those allegations against the complainant (RSS) which formed part of his impugned statement leading to his summoning.

"He has chosen the path of justifying his assertion not on mere `belief' but on `truth' of the allegation levelled by him. This gives rise to various questions which would need trial," the court observed.

On September 14, RSS had withdrawn the case against the Times of India and the Nav Bharat Times following publication of correction/clarification by thenewspapers in their September 11 editions published from the capital.

The CMM had separated Kesri's trial from that of the two newspapers following a Delhi high court order to this effect early this year.