A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court on Friday stayed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s conviction in a 2019 criminal defamation case over his Modi surname remark, thereby paving the way for the revival of his Lok Sabha membership.
The top court bench of Justices B R Gavai, P S Narasimha and Sanjay Kumar on Friday said, “No reason has been given by the trial judge for imposing the maximum sentence, the order of conviction needs to be stayed pending final adjudication.”
Rahul Gandhi was a Member of Parliament (MP) from the Wayanad seat in Kerala. After he was convicted in the “Modi-Thieves” remarks case by a Surat court and given two years’ imprisonment, he was subsequently disqualified as an MP, following a notice by the Lok Sabha Secretariat.
Here’s a timeline of Rahul Gandhi’s defamation case:
-April 13, 2019: In the run-up to Lok Sabha elections, Rahul Gandhi at an election campaign in Karnataka’s Kolar remarked, “Why do all the thieves, be it Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi or Narendra Modi, have Modi as the common surname?”
-April 15, 2019: BJP MLA from Surat West and former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi files criminal defamation suit against Rahul Gandhi taking objection to his “Modi surname” remarks.
-July 7, 2019: Rahul Gandhi makes first appearance before Surat metropolitan court.
-March 23, 2023: Rahul Gandhi is convicted by the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Surat, H H Varma and awarded two-year simple imprisonment, the maximum sentence in such cases, which was suspended for 30 days to allow him to appeal.
-March 24, 2023: Rahul Gandhi disqualified as a Member of Parliament due to his conviction and two-year jail term.
The conviction of two years led to his disqualification as Section 8(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, states that “a person convicted of any offence and sentenced to imprisonment for not less than two years shall be disqualified from the date of such conviction and shall continue to be disqualified for a further period of six years since his release”.
-April 2, 2023: Rahul Gandhi challenges the metropolitan court’s order in a Sessions court in Surat along with an application seeking a stay to the conviction.
-April 20, 2023: Surat sessions court upholds magistrate court’s conviction order, and dismisses Gandhi’s application to stay conviction.
-April 25, 2023: Rahul Gandhi files revision appeal before Gujarat High Court against the lower court order.
-July 7, 2023: Gujarat High Court dismisses Rahul Gandhi’s plea seeking a stay on his conviction, says “breached the modesty”, and “moral turpitude” with his remarks.
“It is now the need of the hour to have purity in politics. Representatives of people should be men of the clear antecedent,” Justice Hemant P. Prachchhak observed.
-July 12, 2023: BJP MLA Purnesh Modi files caveat in Supreme Court seeking to be heard if Gandhi moved a plea challenging the High Court verdict that refused to stay his conviction.
-July 15, 2023: Rahul Gandhi files petition in Supreme Court challenging High Court’s order.
-July 21, 2023: Supreme Court issues notice to Purnesh Modi and the state government on Rahul Gandhi’s appeal challenging the high court verdict.
-Aug 4, 2023: A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court stays Rahul Gandhi’s conviction, paving the way for the revival of his Lok Sabha membership. The apex court notes that the trial court did not give reasons for awarding the maximum punishment of two years to the Congress leader.