Legitimate right of Rahul Gandhi for speedy decision on defamation complaint: HC

The Bombay High Court has said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has a legitimate right for an expeditious decision on merits over a 2014 defamation complaint for his alleged remarks against the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

A single bench of Justice Prithviraj Chavan in the order of 12 July said Article 21 of the Constitution provides the right to a speedy trial for everyone and a free and fair trial is something that is absolutely necessary.

The court made the remarks while allowing Gandhi's petition to quash a magistrate's order permitting an RSS worker to submit fresh and additional documents in the pending criminal defamation complaint.

A detailed copy of the order was made available on Tuesday, 16 July.

In 2014, Sangh worker Rajesh Kunte lodged a defamation complaint before the Bhiwandi magistrate's court, claiming the Congress leader had made false and defamatory statements during a speech that the RSS was responsible for the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.

In 2023, the magistrate court at Bhiwandi in Maharashtra's Thane district permitted Kunte to submit the transcript of Rahul Gandhi's speech, which was part of a petition the Congress leader filed in 2014 seeking quashing of the summons issued to him.

Kunte contended that by including the transcript as part of his petition, Rahul Gandhi had "unambiguously owned up to the speech and its contents".

The Congress leader challenged the magistrate's order before the high court.

Justice Chavan in the order questioned Kunte and said due to his overall conduct, the matter is being "unnecessarily delayed and protracted".

"The respondent No. 2 (Kunte) is leaving no stone unturned to thwart the legitimate right of the petitioner (Rahul Gandhi) to get the complaint decided on merits as expeditiously as possible in view of Article 21 of the Constitution of India which provides speedy trial," the HC said.

"It is difficult to abstruse the conduct of the complainant. Free and fair trial is a sine qua non (a thing that is absolutely necessary) of Article 21 of the Constitution of India. It is trite law that justice should not only be done but it should be seen to have been done," the court said.

While quashing the trial court order, the HC said the magistrate appears to have completely disregarded the cardinal principle of criminal jurisprudence while permitting Kunte to rely on the documents as evidence.

The bench also directed the magistrate to decide and dispose of the complaint expeditiously as it has been pending since a decade.

The HC held that the copy of the transcript of the alleged speech was annexed to the petition only for a limited purpose of hearing of that petition in view of rules of the court.

"Obviously, the annexures which were annexed in the petition were only for a limited purpose of seeking quashing of the case and can by no stretch of imagination be construed as an admission on behalf of the petitioner in respect of the contents therein," it said.

The documents submitted by Kunte include parts of a petition filed by Rahul Gandhi in 2014, challenging the summons issued to him by the Bhiwandi court then.

It includes a copy of the transcript of Rahul Gandhi's alleged speech taken from a CD containing the purported live telecast of the programme, which was annexed as an exhibit to the petition.

Rahul Gandhi in his plea claimed that in 2021, another bench of the high court disallowed Kunte from submitting any fresh documents in the case.

However, despite this, the magistrate permitted the submission of the documents as part of the complaint.

The Congress leader claimed the magistrate's order allowing Kunte to submit fresh documents at this stage was "completely illegal and prejudicial".