Defamation Case: No Relief For Rahul Gandhi But SC Issues Notice To Gujarat Govt

The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Gujarat government in connection to the appeal filed by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, challenging the High Court order that refused to put on hold his conviction and a two-year jail term in a criminal defamation case.

The top court also issued notice to the complainant and Gujarat BJP MLA Purnesh Modi on Rahul Gandhi's plea and posted the matter for hearing on August 4.

In his appeal filed on July 15, Gandhi has said that if the July 7 judgment is not stayed, it would lead to throttling of free speech, expression, thought, and statement.

Purnesh Modi, a former minister in the Gujarat government, had filed a criminal defamation case in 2019 against Gandhi over his "How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?" remark made during an election rally at Kolar in Karnataka on April 13, 2019.

Gandhi, in his appeal, said, "It is most respectfully submitted that if the impugned judgment is not stayed, it would lead to throttling of free speech, free expression, free thought, and free statement. 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 unprecedentedly, in a case of criminal defamation, a maximum sentence of two years has been imposed; itself a rarest of rare occurrence.

"The sentence has been suspended for the asking; however conviction is not stayed/ suspended. This has resulted in the inexorable exclusion of the petitioner from all political elective office for a long period of eight years. That too in the world's largest democracy where the petitioner has been a former president of the oldest political movement in the country and is also continuously in the vanguard of opposition political activity", he said.

Gandhi highlighted that he would suffer irreparable injury coupled with irreversible consequences resulting in injustice and as a consequence of the conviction, he is currently disqualified as a Member of Parliament from Wayanad, a parliamentary constituency in Kerala, and cannot participate in parliamentary proceedings.

His appeal said Gandhi was elected with a record margin of 4,31,770 votes and in the absence of stay of conviction, he cannot contest in the forthcoming elections.

"The disqualification as MP on account of a frivolous conviction is causing irreparable harm and injury not only to the petitioner, who is a full-time politician but also to the constituents of the petitioner's constituency", his appeal said.

Gandhi, as an interim relief, sought an ad-interim ex-parte stay of the July 7 order of the Gujarat high court and an ad-interim stay of his conviction during the pendency of this appeal in the top court.

The Congress leader was disqualified as a Member of Parliament on March 24 after a Gujarat court convicted him and sentenced him to two-year imprisonment on charges of criminal defamation for comments he made about the Modi surname.

In a setback to the 53-year-old Gandhi, the high court dismissed his petition for a stay on conviction on July 7, observing that "purity in politics" is the need of the hour.

A stay on Gandhi's conviction could have paved the way for his reinstatement as a Lok Sabha MP but he failed to get any relief from either the sessions court or the Gujarat high court.