The Supreme Court has fixed a hearing date of July 21 for the appeal filed by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. He is seeking a stay on his conviction in a defamation case related to his “Modi surname” remark. The stay was previously dismissed by the Gujarat High Court.
The matter will be taken up by a bench comprising Justices B R Gavai and P K Mishra. Earlier, senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi sought an urgent hearing and brought the case to the attention of a bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud on July 18, after which the court agreed to hear Gandhi’s plea.
In his appeal, Rahul Gandhi has expressed concerns that, if the Gujarat High Court’s judgment given on July 7, is not stayed, it could lead to a curb on free speech, expression, thought and statements.
The criminal defamation case was filed against Rahul Gandhi in 2019 by Purnesh Modi, a former minister in the Gujarat government.
The case was in response to Gandhi’s statement during an election rally in Kolar, Karnataka, on April 13, 2019, where he referred to businessmen Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi, both of whom are fugitive prominent businessmen wanted in India while making his “how all thieves have Modi as the common surname” remark, PTI reported.
Gandhi has said in his plea he will suffer irreparable injury if the HC order is not stayed. He has said an irreversible consequence of not staying the order will result in injustice as, because of the conviction, he currently stands disqualified as a Member of Parliament from Wayanad in Kerala and cannot participate in parliamentary proceedings.
Gandhi, as an interim relief, has sought an ad-interim ex-parte stay of the July 7 order of the Gujarat High court during the pendency of this appeal in the top court.
The Congress leader was disqualified as an MP on March 24 after a Gujarat court convicted and sentenced him to two-year imprisonment on the charge of criminal defamation for comments he made about the Modi surname.
In a setback to the 53-year-old Gandhi, the high court had 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.
A metropolitan magistrate’s court in Surat had on March 23 sentenced the former Congress president to two years in jail after convicting him under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 499 and 500 (criminal defamation).
Following the verdict, Gandhi was disqualified as an MP under the provisions of the Representation of the People Act.
Gandhi challenged the order in a sessions court in Surat and filed an application seeking a stay on his conviction.
While granting him bail, the Surat sessions court had on April 20 refused to stay the conviction, following which he approached the high court.
