Gandhi’s defamation conviction stayed by SC; likely to be back as Lok Sabha MP
The Supreme Court today stayed Rahul Gandhi’s conviction in the defamation suit for insulting everyone with the ‘Modi’ surname, clearing his reinstatement to the position of MP of Lok Sabha.
The case arose over his comment during the 2018 Karnataka Assembly campaign, that “why all thieves have the Modi surname”. The case was filed by a BJP MLA from Gujarat Purnesh Modi in 2019, who contended that, through this remark, Rahul Gandhi had insulted everyone with the ‘Modi’ surname.
The primary reason given by the Supreme Court for staying Gandhi’s conviction, while hearing his plea against the Gujarat High Court’s upholding of his conviction by a Surat court, is that the Surat court judge (HH Varma), “[e]xcept the admonition to the petitioner” [Rahul Gandhi] cited “no other reason” for imposing the maximum sentence of two years for a defamation case.
It was only for the maximum sentence imposed that the Section 8(3) of the Representation of Peoples Act came into play, the bench of Justices BR Gavai, PS Narasimha and Sanjay Kumar said.
“Particularly when the offence was non-cognisable, bailable and compoundable, the least which was expected from the learned trial judge was to give reasons for imposing the maximum punishment. Though the learned appellate court and the High Court have spent voluminous pages in rejecting the applications, these aspects are not seen considered,” the bench said tellingly.
The court, however, said that Gandhi’s comments were not in “good taste” and a person in public life ought to be more careful while giving speeches.
In an affidavit submitted to the court on Wednesday, Gandhi had said he would not apologise for his comment as doing so would result in his submitting to the “arm-twisting” tactics of the BJP.
This was a repeat of the assertion he had made on March 25 this year, the day he was disqualified from Parliament. “My name is not Savarkar, my name is Gandhi. Gandhis don’t apologise to anyone,” he had then said.
It was two days after being convicted by the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Surat, HH Varma and awarded two-year simple imprisonment, the maximum sentence in such cases.
Reacting to the staying of the conviction by the Supreme Court today, petitioned (BJP MLA) Purnesh Modi was quoted by the news agency ANI as saying, “We will continue our legal battle in the court”.
For the Congress, today’s judgment by the Supreme Court was “a victory of love against hate. Satyamev Jayate – Jai Hind”, as it tweeted.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the Bombay High Court extended till September 26 the interim relief granted to Gandhi from appearance before a local court here in a defamation complaint pertaining to his alleged remarks against Prime Minister Modi in 2018.
