The Supreme Court of India stayed Rahul Gandhi’s conviction in the ‘Modi surname’ defamation case on Friday, August 4 in New Delhi, stating that the alleged statements made by Gandhi were “not in good taste” and clearing the door for Gandhi to regain his Lok Sabha membership.
There’s no denying that the purported comments made by the appellant are offensive. The panel of Justices B.R. Gavai, P.S. Narasimha, and Prashant Kumar Mishra said in their ruling that “a person in public life is expected to exercise a degree of restraint while making public speeches.”
The bench said the former Congress president “ought to have been more careful while making the public speech” after the trial court imposed the maximum sentence of two years in the defamation case for no reason other than the reprimand given by the Supreme Court in contempt proceedings for wrongly linking its Rafale case order to his “chowkidar chor hai” phrase against PM Narendra Modi.
The Supreme Court speculated that Rahul Gandhi could have been more circumspect and restrained in his claimed defamatory statements if the judgement of the Apex Court in the contempt proceedings had arrived before the address.
The highest court said, “the least that the Trial Judge was expected to do was to give some reasons as to why, in the facts and circumstances, he found it necessary to impose the maximum sentence of two years.” Defamation is a non-cognizable, bailable, and compoundable crime.
If Gandhi had received a term of 1 year, 11 months, and 29 days, the court reasoned, he would not have been barred from serving in parliament.
The court suspended the verdict pending appeal and explained the far-reaching effects a disqualification would have.
“They affect the right of the electorate, who have elected him, to represent their constituency,” the Supreme Court said.
Senior counsel Mahesh Jethamalani, representing the complaining BJP MLA in the defamation case, said as follows during the hearing: “Constituency will elect a new member in September (after expiration of six months). The voters have the right to choose a candidate who isn’t a convicted felon. Not someone who makes hasty accusations and has been arrested.”
However, senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who was representing Gandhi, said that the conviction was “strange.”
He said that “everyone who is hurting is a BJP office bearer or a karyakarta (party worker).”
According to Jethamalani, Gandhi intended to smear anybody whose last name was Modi since it sounded like the name of a Prime Minister.
“You (Rahul Gandhi) have defamed an entire class out of malice,” he said.
The former Congress president appealed the Gujarat High Court’s decision to uphold his conviction in the ‘Modi surname’ defamation case, and the Supreme Court was considering his case.
