Defamation case: Next hearing on Rahul Gandhi's plea fixed for August 4

The Supreme Court on Friday sought responses from former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi and the state government on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's appeal challenging the high court verdict that declined to put on hold his conviction in a defamation case over his "Modi surname" remark.

A bench of Justices B R Gavai and P K Mishra issued notices to Purnesh Modi, who had filed a criminal defamation case in 2019 against Gandhi over his "How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?" remark made during an election rally at Kolar in Karnataka on April 13, 2019, and the Gujarat government on Gandhi's appeal.

"The limited question at this stage is whether the conviction deserves to be stayed," the bench observed.

Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Gandhi, said the Congress leader has suffered for 111 days, lost one Parliament session and is about to lose another session. Singhvi said the only urgency is that by-election for Wayanad constituency from where Gandhi was elected and was later disqualified from Lok Sabha upon his conviction and two-year sentence in the defamation case, can be announced at any moment.

At the outset Justice Gavai made it clear that his late father RS Gavai though not a Congress member was closely associated with the party for more than four decades and was Member of Parliament and MLA with its support. He said his brother is also a politician. "If anyone has any problem with my background then please let me know", Justice Gavai told Singhvi and senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, appearing for Purnesh Modi.

Both Singhvi and Jethmalani said that although they knew these facts, they don’t have any objection to Justice Gavai hearing this matter.

The apex court has posted the matter for further hearing on August 4 and asked Jethmalani and counsel for Gujarat government to file their replies along with written submissions.

In his appeal filed on July 15, Gandhi has said that if the July 7 judgment is not stayed, it would lead to throttling of free speech, expression, thought, and statement.

The Congress leader was disqualified as a Member of Parliament on March 24 after a Gujarat court convicted him and sentenced him to a two-year imprisonment on charges of criminal defamation for comments he made about the Modi surname.

The high court had dismissed his petition for a stay on conviction, observing that "purity in politics" is the need of the hour.

A stay on Gandhi's conviction could have paved the way for his reinstatement as a Lok Sabha MP but he failed to get any relief from either the sessions court or the Gujarat High Court.

Gandhi, in his appeal, said, "It is most respectfully submitted that if the impugned judgment is not stayed, it would lead to throttling of free speech, free expression, free thought, and free statement. 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." He said unprecedentedly, in a case of criminal defamation, a maximum sentence of two years has been imposed; itself a rarest of rare occurrence.

"The sentence has been suspended for the asking; however conviction is not stayed/ suspended. This has resulted in the inexorable exclusion of the petitioner from all political elective office for a long period of eight years. That too in the world's largest democracy where the petitioner has been a former president of the oldest political movement in the country and is also continuously in the vanguard of opposition political activity", he said.

Gandhi highlighted that he would suffer irreparable injury coupled with irreversible consequences resulting in injustice and as a consequence of the conviction, he is currently disqualified as a Member of Parliament from Wayanad, a parliamentary constituency in Kerala, and cannot participate in parliamentary proceedings.

The Congress leader was disqualified as a Member of Parliament on March 24 after a Gujarat court convicted him and sentenced him to a two-year imprisonment on charges of criminal defamation for comments he made about the Modi surname.

A metropolitan magistrate's court in Surat had on March 23 sentenced the former Congress president to two years in jail after convicting him under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 499 and 500 (criminal defamation).

Following the verdict, Gandhi was disqualified as an MP under the provisions of the Representation of the People Act.

Gandhi then challenged the order in a sessions court in Surat along with an application seeking a stay on his conviction. While granting him bail, the sessions court on April 20 refused to stay the conviction, following which he had approached the high court.