Rahul Gandhi Moves Supreme Court Seeking Stay on Defamation Conviction
Rahul Gandhi Appeals to Supreme Court for Relief
15-07-2023 : Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has taken his defamation case to the Supreme Court, seeking a stay on his conviction. The move comes after the Gujarat High Court had previously declined to stay his conviction in a defamation case related to his “Modi surname” remark. Rahul Gandhi filed the petition through his advocate on-record, Prasanna S.
Earlier, a Surat court had sentenced Rahul to two years in jail for his remarks on the ‘Modi’ surname. This conviction resulted in his disqualification as the Member of Parliament from Wayanad in Kerala. However, the Surat court granted him bail, allowing him to challenge the verdict. When a sessions court refused to stay his conviction, he approached the high court.
On July 7, the Gujarat High Court declined to stay Rahul’s conviction, stating that staying a conviction is not the norm and should only be done in exceptional cases. Justice Hemant Prachchhak noted that Rahul Gandhi has ten criminal cases pending against him and observed that additional cases were filed against him even after the current one.
The judge emphasized the importance of public representatives maintaining a clear character. He mentioned another case filed by the grandson of Veer Savarkar in a Pune court, where defamatory terms were used against Veer Savarkar at Cambridge. The judge also referred to complaints filed in a Lucknow court in another case.
The defamation case was filed by Gujarat BJP leader Purnesh Modi, accusing Rahul Gandhi of defaming the entire Modi community with his remarks. During an election campaign in Kolar, Karnataka, in 2019, Rahul had made a comment questioning why all thieves have the Modi surname.
Notably, Purnesh Modi was a minister in the first tenure of the Bhupendra Patel government and was re-elected from the Surat West Assembly seat in the December elections.
In a related case, the Jharkhand High Court, on July 4, exempted Rahul Gandhi from appearing personally in a Ranchi court regarding the Modi surname case.
