The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear on July 21 the petition filed by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi seeking a stay on in a criminal defamation case over his ‘Modi surname’ remark.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi mentioned Rahul Gandhi’s petition before Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud for urgent listing. The CJI has agreed to list it on Friday.
Arguing that the conviction order would lead to throttling of free speech, free expression, free thought, and free statement, Gandhi urged the top court to immediately stay his conviction to also enable him to regain his MP status.
“It would contribute to the systematic, repetitive emasculation of democratic institutions and the consequent strangulation of democracy which would be gravely detrimental to the political climate and future of India,” he said.
This comes two days after a petition was filed following the Gujarat High Court’s refusal to stay the two-year jail term pronounced by a magistrate court on the Congress leader, leading to his disqualification as the Lok Sabha MP.
Defamation case against Rahul Gandhi
On March 23, the metropolitan magistrate’s court in Surat sentenced the former Congress president to two years in jail after convicting him under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 499 and 500 (criminal defamation). The case was filed by Purnesh Modi for his “How come all thieves have Modi surname” remarks, made at an election rally in Kolar, Karnataka, during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Following his conviction, he was disqualified as a Member of Parliament under the provisions of the Representation of the People Act.
Gandhi had then approached the sessions court challenging the earlier order, along with an application seeking a stay on his conviction. While granting him bail, the sessions court on April 20 refused to stay the conviction, following which, he had knocked on the doors of the high court.
Also Read: Rahul Gandhi considering Sheila Dikshit’s Nizamuddin residence as potential new home
Delivering a 125-page verdict, Justice Hemant Prachchhak of the Gujarat High Court said that Gandhi was already facing 10 criminal cases across India, adding the order of the lower court was “just, proper and legal” in handing over a two-year jail term to Gandhi for his remarks.
The judge maintained it was not an “individual-centric defamation case”, but something which affected a “large section of the society”. The court also noted Gandhi took Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s name in his speech to “add sensation” and with an intention to “affect the result” of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Meanwhile, BJP MLA Purnesh Modi, the complainant in the defamation case against Gandhi, has also filed a caveat in the top court seeking that he be heard if the Congress leader moves a plea challenging the high court verdict in the surname case.