SC contempt notice to Rahul for ''Chowkidar chor hai’ comment

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 15

In an embarrassment to Rahul Gandhi, the Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the Congress president on a criminal contempt petition by BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi accusing him of making wrong statements about a recent verdict on admissibility of certain documents in the Rafale case.

A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi asked Rahul Gandhi to file his explanation on or before April 22. While giving liberty to Lekhi to file additional affidavit, the Bench posted the matter for further hearing on April 23.

“We make it clear that this Court had no occasion to record any view or finding or make any observation as allegedly attributed to the Court by the respondent inasmuch as what was decided by this Court was a purely legal question of admissibility of certain documents to which objections were raised by the learned Attorney General,” the Bench said.

The Bench -- which also included Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Sanjiv Khanna – said, “…that no views, observations or findings should be attributed to the Court in political address to the media and in public speeches, unless such views, observations or findings are recorded by the Court.”

The notice was issued to Gandhi after senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing Lekhi, submitted that Gandhi had commented that the “Supreme Court has said that chowkidar chor hai” in its April 10 verdict on Rafale review petitions.

"You were right to the extent we never said what has been brought in the petition. We will seek clarification,” the Bench said.

BJP MP from New Delhi and advocate Meenakshi Lekhi had on Friday filed a contempt petition in the Supreme Court against the Congress president for allegedly attributing his remarks on the recent Rafale verdict to the top court.

The Congress president had on April 10 claimed that the apex court had made it “clear” that Prime Minister Narendra Modi “committed a theft”. He had made the statement while interacting with journalists in Amethi after filing his nomination papers. He is contesting against BJP leader and union minister Smriti Irani.

Gandhi had also recalled a recent interview by the Prime Minister, in which Modi had said that the Supreme Court had given a clean chit to his government on the Rafale deal.

“Now the SC has made it clear that ‘chowkidarji; (watchman) has committed a theft,” Gandhi had told reporters after filing his nomination papers from the Amethi Lok Sabha constituency. He had claimed that the court had “accepted that there is some corruption in Rafale”.

The court, which had earlier cleared the Modi government of accusations of corruption over the Rafale fighter jet deal with France, had rejected Government’s objections and said it would hear a review petition on the basis of the leaked documents, referred to by the petitioners.

Says statement ‘incorrectly attributed’

"We make it clear that this court had no occasion to record any view or finding or make any observation as allegedly attributed to the court by the respondent." — SC

Act against cong president, BJP asks EC   

• The BJP on Monday asked the EC to take “serious cognisance” of Rahul Gandhi’s “chowkidar chor hai” statement after the SC demanded an explanation from him 

• Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad accused Gandhi of lying and said while the Constitution gives every citizen the freedom to speak, it does not give freedom to “lie and abuse”