The Gujarat High Court’s decision was challenged by Rahul Gandhi on Saturday, when he went to the Supreme Court.
On Tuesday, July 18 in New Delhi, the Supreme Court accepted to hear Rahul Gandhi’s petition challenging the Gujarat High Court’s ruling that rejected to suspend his conviction and a two-year prison sentence in the ‘Modi’ surname defamation case. The hearing is scheduled to take place on July 21.
Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Rahul Gandhi’s top lawyer, asked the Supreme Court to hear the case as soon as possible.
In the criminal defamation case in which he was convicted to two years in prison by a Surat court for the ‘Modi surname’ statement, Rahul Gandhi had on Saturday petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn the verdict of the Gujarat High Court, which had rejected to suspend his conviction.
Following his conviction in the case, on March 24 the Lok Sabha Secretariat notified the public that Gandhi was no longer eligible to serve as the MP for Kerala’s Wayanad constituency.
Due to the strict requirements of the Representation of the People Act, Gandhi was no longer eligible to be an MP after he was sentenced to two years in jail.
The magisterial court found Gandhi guilty of insulting the ‘Modi’ family name in March, just before the 2019 general election.
Gandhi appealed his judgment to the Sessions court after his conviction by the magisterial court on April 20, but his request was denied. After that, he went all the way up to the Supreme Court.
