Rahul Gandhi Defamation Case: Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the Congress, was found guilty and given a two-year sentence by a Gujarat magistrate’s court for saying that “all thieves have the Modi surname.” The Supreme Court has now issued a stay of the judgement and sentence. Justices BR Gavai, PS Narasimha, and Sanjay Kumar made up a bench bench that heard Gandhi’s request for a stay of his conviction. His conviction in the criminal defamation case had already been rejected by the Gujarat High Court.
Concerns Raised Over Rahul Gandhi’s Defamation Case
The Supreme Court expressed concern on Friday regarding Congressman Rahul Gandhi’s conviction in a defamation case from 2019 and noted that the lower court had given Gandhi the maximum penalty of two years without providing any justification. The Supreme Court further stated that the length of Gandhi’s sentence appeared to be the only factor preventing him from serving as a Lok Sabha Member. Gandhi would not have lost his status as an MP, according to the report, if the sentence was even one day less than two years. Gandhi’s disqualification had been triggered by the sentence’s duration alone, the court noted, adding that if the conviction had been for even one day less, the provision would not have been invoked. According to the legal news website Bar & Bench, the Supreme Court had stated at the outset that Rahul Gandhi would have to “make out an exceptional case” for any stay on conviction. Senior Attorney Abhishek Manu Singhvi represented Gandhi and said that BJP MLA Purnesh Modi, the subject of the complaint, had also assumed his last name (Modi). “Not a single of the persons Gandhi had named during his speech have sued. Interestingly, everybody who is aggrieved in this very ‘small’ community in 13 crores, only people suing are BJP office-holders. This is very strange… In that 13 crore, there is no uniformity, homogeneity, identifiability, no boundary line,” Singhvi was quoted as saying by legal news website Live Law. “In democracy we have dissent and disagreement. What we call ‘shaleen (decent)’ bhasha,” he said.
BJP Continues Legal Battle in Rahul Gandhi’s Defamation Case
“Truth Alone Triumphs! We welcome the verdict by the Hon’ble Supreme Court giving relief to Shri @RahulGandhi. Justice has been delivered. Democracy has won. The Constitution has been upheld. BJP’s conspiratorial hounding of Shri Gandhi has been thoroughly exposed. Time for them to stop their malicious targeting of Opposition leaders. It is high time they respect the mandate given by the people and start governing the country, on which they have miserably failed in the last 10 years,” Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge tweeted. “We respect the court’s order. But we will continue our legal battle,” says BJP leader and complainant in the case Purnesh Modi. “There is no doubt that utterances are not in good taste, person in public life is expected to exercise caution while making public speeches, says Supreme Court,” the SC remarked in addition to issuing the stay. Rahul Gandhi should have been more cautious, the court noted when it accepted his affidavit in the contempt petition.
Defamation Conviction Leads to Disqualification
Rahul Gandhi was sentenced to a two-year prison term by a Surat metropolitan magistrate’s court in March, and as a result, he was disqualified from serving in the Lok Sabha. The 2019 case centred on his remark, “Why do all thieves have the Modi surname?” was related to this verdict. The Surat Sessions Court ultimately declined to vacate the conviction in this case. Before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the former Wayanad MP from the Lok Sabha made this claim at a rally in Karnataka. Because Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi, two fugitive businessmen charged with separate counts of money laundering, share the same last name, his remark was directed at Prime Minister Modi. Rahul was stripped of his right to serve as an MP on March 24 as a result of his conviction, under a 2013 ruling by the Supreme Court. According to this decree, any Member of Parliament (MP) or Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) who is convicted and receives a term of two years or more is automatically disqualified.
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