Rahul Gandhi moves Supreme Court for stay on conviction in slander case

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 15

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday moved the Supreme Court against the Gujarat High Court order dismissing his plea seeking a stay on his conviction in a criminal defamation case over his “Modi surname” remark.

Denied relief by HC

Gujarat HC had on July 7 said there was no reasonable ground to stay the conviction and the magisterial court’s order was “just, proper and legal”.

Rahul’s petition is likely to be taken up for hearing early next week. Following a Surat court’s March 23 verdict convicting him in the defamation case and giving him two-year imprisonment, Rahul, elected to the Lok Sabha from Wayanad in Kerala in 2019, was disqualified as an MP under the Representation of the People Act. A stay on his conviction would pave the way for his reinstatement as an MP.

Noting that Rahul was already facing 10 criminal cases across India, Justice Hemant Prachchhak of the Gujarat High Court had on July 7 said there was no reasonable ground to stay the conviction and the magisterial court’s order was “just, proper and legal”. However, even after rejection of his plea for stay of conviction by the sessions court, Rahul would not go to jail as his sentence remains suspended.

The HC had noted that Rahul, while addressing a poll rally where he made the controversial remark, 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. The HC, however, had requested the District Judge concerned to decide Rahul’s criminal appeal “on its own merits and in accordance with law as expeditiously as possible.”

BJP MLA and former minister in the Gujarat Government, Purnesh Modi, filed a criminal defamation case against Rahul 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. A metropolitan magistrate’s court in Surat had on March 23 sentenced two-year jail term to Rahul after convicting him under sections 499 and 500 (criminal defamation) of the IPC. Rahul challenged the order in a sessions court in Surat, which remains pending, along with an application seeking a stay to the conviction. While granting him bail, the sessions court on April 20 refused to stay the conviction, following which he had moved the HC.

Noting that 10 criminal cases are pending against the applicant, the HC said, “After this complaint, another complaint was filed in a court in Pune by the grandson of Veer Savarkar for Rahul’s defamatory utterance against Veer Savarkar at Cambridge. Another complaint against him was filed in the court of Lucknow.”

Justice Prachchhak said “representatives of people should be men of clear antecedent” and noted a stay on conviction was not a rule, but an exception, resorted only in rare cases. Referring to the cases Rahul was facing, the HC further observed that “it is now the need of the hour to have purity in politics”.

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