New Delhi, August 4 (IANS). In a major relief to Rahul Gandhi, the Supreme Court on Friday stayed his sentence in the ‘Modi surname’ defamation case. Due to this punishment, he had to lose his Lok Sabha membership. The Supreme Court also questioned the trial judge’s order imposing a maximum sentence of two years in the case.
Justice B.R. Gavai, P.S. Narasimha, and Prashant Kumar Mishra during the hearing said, “If a constituency becomes unrepresented, is it not a relevant ground (to suspend the sentence)? No one said anything on the need for the trial judge to impose the maximum sentence. This is affecting not only the rights of one person, but the entire electorate of the constituency.
Furthermore, the bench remarked that if Gandhi had been given a sentence of 1 year, 11 months and 29 days, he would not have been disqualified as a Member of Parliament.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Gandhi, termed the trial court’s conviction as “strange” and cited several other Supreme Court judgments to say that Gandhi’s conviction in the case should be suspended. “The victim is only a BJP functionary or worker,” he said.
On the other hand, senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, appearing for BJP MLA, the complainant in the defamation case, said that Gandhi’s intention was to defame everyone with the surname ‘Modi’ just because it is similar to the surname of the Prime Minister.
“You (Rahul Gandhi) have maliciously maligned an entire section of the society,” he said.
He also referred to the warning given to Gandhi by the Supreme Court in 2019 in contempt proceedings on the Rafale case.
The Supreme Court was hearing a petition filed against the Gujarat High Court’s order refusing to stay his sentence in the ‘Modi surname’ defamation case.
On July 15, the Congress leader had approached the Supreme Court challenging the Gujarat High Court order, where a bench of Justice Hemant Prachhak said that staying his sentence would be an exception and not the rule.
Gandhi was disqualified as an MP in March after a court in Surat convicted him and in April 2019 for his remark during an election rally in Karnataka that “how Modi is the common surname of all thieves”. Sentenced to two years in prison.
In March, the sessions court in Surat rejected Gandhi’s plea seeking suspension of his sentence by the magistrate court, saying that his disqualification would not prejudice him. The Congress leader was disqualified under the rule that bars convicted MPs from holding membership of the Lok Sabha.
According to legal experts, after the apex court stayed the sentence of Rahul Gandhi, his Lok Sabha membership can be restored.
