A local court in Thiruvananthapuram issued a summons to Congress MP Shashi Tharoor in a petition accusing him of insulting Hindu Nair women of Kerala in one of his books.

In the book, 'The Great Indian Novel', Tharoor mentioned that there was a time when men of Hindu Nair community would know that their wives were free to receive them only if no another man's slippers were not seen outside the door.

Though the book was written in 1989, the excerpts from the book were widely spread in Kerala during the recent Lok Sabha election campaign.

A woman hailing from Thiruvananthapuram filed a defamation petition against Tharoor in this connection. Based on this, the Thiruvananthapuram additional chief judicial magistrate court on Friday issued summons to the MP, who is representing the Thiruvananthapuram parliament constituency, to appear on December 21.

Tharoor had earlier commented on Twitter that, "This is the poisonous bilge the Chowkidars are spreading in my constituency on @whatsApp, @Facebook & @Twitter: a statement by a fictional character in my 1989 Great Indian Novel describing a historic practice of earlier centuries, twisted to imply my views of today’s Nair women."