The Supreme Court Monday directed Congress president Rahul Gandhi to give an explanation by April 22 for "incorrectly" attributing his remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi to its verdict in the Rafale review petitions last week.
The court gave the direction on a petition filed by BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi seeking contempt action against Gandhi after she claimed he attributed some observations to the apex court which was not in the Rafale judgement on April 10 on the admissibility of certain 'leaked' documents as evidence.
Stating that it will consider the criminal contempt petition filed by Lekhi, the court made it clear that views attributed to it in the remarks made by Gandhi in public have been "incorrectly attributed" to this court.
Reacting to the direction, the Congress said it will provide an explanation to the Supreme Court while the BJP asserted that the top court has exposed Gandhi's "lie".
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley accused Gandhi of "manufacturing" a court order for political propaganda, asserting that 'right to free speech' is not 'right to falsehood'.
"We make it clear that views, observations, findings attributed to this court in the alleged speeches, remarks made by Gandhi to media/public have been incorrectly attributed to this court. We also make it clear that this court had no occasion to make such observation in as much as it was deciding legal admissibility of certain documents which were objected by the attorney general," a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said.
The bench also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna said, "Having clarified the matter we deem it appropriate to seek explanation of Gandhi."