Defamation Case of Rahul Gandhi: Gujarat High Court Postponed Rahul Gandhi’s Case for May 2
Rahul Gandhi with a lengthy letter opposed the Surat session court seeking a stay to the judgment
Gujarat: On April 29, the Gujarat High Court scheduled the final hearing for Rahul Gandhi’s appeal, which contests a Surat court’s decision to refuse a stay on his conviction in a criminal defamation case. The hearing is set to take place on May 2.
Senior lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi presented arguments on behalf of Rahul Gandhi in the Gujarat High Court earlier today. Singhvi pointed out “serious vitiating factors” in the trial process that led to Gandhi’s conviction in a criminal defamation case related to his “Modi surname” remark. The High Court’s Justice Hemant Prachchhak took up Gandhi’s criminal revision application, which challenges the sessions court’s April 20 order. If the High Court grants his plea, Gandhi may be reinstated as a Member of Parliament. On Wednesday, Justice Gita Gopi recused herself from hearing the case, and it was assigned to the court of Justice Prachchhak. During the argument, Singhvi emphasized that the consequences of such convictions for public servants or legislators can be serious and irreversible, affecting their person, constituency, and re-election prospects.
In a case filed by BJP’s Gujarat MLA Purnesh Modi in 2019, Rahul Gandhi, the former Congress president, was convicted under IPC sections 499 and 500 for criminal defamation by a metropolitan magistrate’s court in Surat on March 23. He was sentenced to two years in prison. As a result, he was disqualified as a Member of Parliament under the Representation of the People Act. Rahul Gandhi appealed the order and requested a stay on the conviction in the Surat sessions court. Although he was granted bail, the court denied the stay on the conviction on April 20. Purnesh Modi’s criminal defamation case was filed in response to Rahul Gandhi’s comment “How come all thieves have Modi as the common”
