SC stays Rahul's conviction, Cong demands restoration of LS membership

The Supreme Court on Friday stayed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s conviction in a 2019 criminal defamation case over his “Modi surname” remark.

The order will restore his Lok Sabha membership and enable him to contest election.

The order noted the Congress leader was awarded the maximum sentence of two years in the case without the trial court giving a reason for it, and it would not have led to his disqualification from Parliament if the sentence was a day less.

The Supreme Court, however, said the Congress leader’s remarks were not in good taste, especially for a person in public life.

 

The Congress demanded the Speaker restore Gandhi’s Lok Sabha membership from Wayanad so that he could participate in the no-confidence motion debate, which begins Tuesday.

The party brought up the “extraordinary speed” that the Lok Sabha Secretariat showed to suspend Gandhi within 24 hours of his conviction by a Surat court. The Lok Sabha Secretariat disqualified Gandhi on March 24, a day after the Surat court convicted him, and he vacated his official bungalow within a month.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who represented Gandhi in the Supreme Court, said the Lok Sabha Secretariat should show “grace” to restore Gandhi’s membership at the earliest, or else they would again knock on the judiciary’s door.

Leaders of the Indian National Inclusive Developmental Alliance (INDIA) welcomed the order.

“Come what may, my duty remains the same. Protect the idea of India,” Gandhi tweeted. Later, at the Congress headquarters, Gandhi thanked the people for their love and support and said the truth always wins.

"My path is clear. I have clarity about what I must do,” he said.

On Friday, a three-judge Bench of B R Gavai, P S Narasimha, and Sanjay Kumar said no reason was given by the trial court judge while convicting Gandhi except that the apex court admonished him in a contempt case. The top court was hearing a plea by Gandhi, challenging the Gujarat High Court dismissing on July 7 his plea seeking a stay on his conviction.

“Had the sentence been a day less, the provisions (of the Representation of People Act) would not have been attracted, particularly when an offence is non-cognizable, bailable and compoundable. The least the trial court judge was expected (to do) was (to) give some reasons to impose the maximum sentence,” the Bench said.

It said Gandhi’s conviction and subsequent disqualification affected his right to continue in public life and that of the electorate who elected him to represent their constituency. As the hearing began, Singhvi told the Bench his client was not a hardened criminal and was never convicted despite several cases filed against him by BJP workers.

Singhvi later said 13 cases had been filed against Gandhi, all by BJP workers. He said no documentary evidence of Gandhi’s Kolar speech was submitted for 21 months.

Eventually, a “worthless witness”, a member of the BJP, appeared in the trial to claim he was present at the public meeting where Gandhi made the speech, Singhvi said.

Purnesh Modi, a BJP MLA, filed a criminal defamation case in 2019 against Gandhi over his “How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?” remark made during an election rally in Kolar, Karnataka, on April 13, 2019.

Reacting to the development, Amit Malviya, head of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s information technology department, said in a tweet: “Rahul Gandhi may have survived this one but for how long?” There are several other criminal defamation cases pending against Gandhi, including “the high profile case of mudslinging the venerable Veer Savarkar”, filed by the freedom fighter's family, Malviya wrote on Twitter, recently rebranded as X.

“Rahul Gandhi is also an accused, along with his mother Sonia Gandhi, in the National Herald scam, and currently out on bail,” the BJP leader added.

Conviction in any of these cases can lead to Gandhi’s disqualification again, he added.

“Rahul Gandhi is on thin ice here. But, for now the Parliament can do with some levity,” Malviya said.

“On an earlier occasion, no less than the Supreme Court had pulled Gandhi up for attributing wrongly to them an observation (that) they had not made,” the BJP leader said.