Supreme Court issues notice to BJP MLA, Gujarat govt on Rahul Gandhi’s plea

Supreme Court issues notice to BJP MLA, Gujarat govt on Rahul Gandhi’s plea
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday issued notices to Gujarat BJP MLA Purnesh Modi and the state government on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s petition challenging the Gujarat High Court’s order refusing to stay his conviction in the ‘Modi surname criminal defamation case’.

A Bench led by Justice BR Gavai asked the respondents to file their replies in 10 days and posted the matter for August 4.

Before issuing notice, Justice Gavai disclosed that his father was closely associated with the Congress even though he was not a member of the party and that his brother was still active in the Congress.

“It’s my duty (to disclose)…Everyone should know. Tomorrow there shouldn’t be a problem. Coincidentally, my father has been with your (Singhvi’s) father as well as his (Mahesh Jethmalani’s) father in Parliament. They were great friends,” Justice Gavai said, adding that he had the pleasure of appearing with senior advocate Ram Jethmalani as a junior.

“Please take a call if you want me to hear this,” Justice Gavai asked Singhvi and Mahesh Jethmalani, who represented Gandhi and Purnesh Modi, respectively.

Justice Gavai went on to issue notice after both the parties said they had no problems with his past associations.

Singhvi urged the Bench to order an interim suspension of Gandhi’s disqualification as an MP from Wayanad in Kerala, saying the petitioner has suffered for 111 days and has lost one parliament session and was losing another. Elections to the parliamentary constituency of Wayanad could be held shortly, he submitted. However, the Bench said it needed to hear the other side before passing any orders.

Noting that there were over 100 pages in the detailed order passed by the high court, Justice Gavai said, “This is peculiar we are seeing in Gujarat courts.” Gandhi has challenged the Gujarat High Court’s July 7 verdict refusing to stay his conviction in the case.

Following a Surat court’s March 23 verdict convicting him in the defamation case and giving him two-year imprisonment, Gandhi – elected to the Lok Sabha from Wayanad in Kerala in 2019 – was disqualified as an MP under the Representation of the People Act. A stay on conviction would pave the way for his reinstatement as an MP.

Gandhi questioned the trial court’s decision to award him the maximum punishment for criminal defamation, contending it’s a “rarity in a criminal defamation case”.

Noting that Gandhi was already facing 10 criminal cases across India, Justice Hemant Prachchhak of the Gujarat High Court had said there was no reasonable ground to stay the conviction and the magisterial court’s order was “just, proper and legal”.

However, even after dismissal of his plea for stay of conviction by the sessions court, Rahul Gandhi will not go to jail as his sentence remains suspended.

Gandhi submitted before the top court that if the impugned judgment was not stayed, it would lead to “throttling of free speech, free expression, free thought, and free statement” and it would contribute to the “systematic, repetitive emasculation of democratic institutions and the consequent strangulation of democracy which would be gravely detrimental to the political climate and future of India”.