Gujrat HC dismisses plea
AHMEDABAD/NEW DELHI, July 7: Observing that “purity in politics” is the need of the hour, the Gujarat High Court today dismissed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s plea seeking a stay on his conviction in a criminal defamation case over his “Modi surname” remark.
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In a setback for 53-year-old Gandhi, Justice Hemant Prachchhak also noted that representatives of people should be “men of clear antecedent” and that a stay on conviction is not a rule, but an exception resorted only in rare cases. There was no reasonable ground to stay the conviction, it added. A stay on Gandhi’s conviction would have paved the way for his reinstatement as a Lok Sabha MP.
Delivering a 125-page verdict, Justice Prachchhak also said Gandhi, a former Congress president, was already facing 10 criminal cases across India, adding the order of the lower court was “just, proper and legal” in handing over a two year jail term to Gandhi for his remarks. The judge maintained it was not an “individual-centric defamation case”, but something which affected a “large section of the society”.
The court also noted Gandhi took Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s name in his speech to “add sensation” and with an intention to “affect the result” of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The Congress said it will move the Supreme Court against the verdict and alleged that the Government is finding “newer techniques” to throttle his voice as it is rattled by him speaking the truth.
BJP MLA and former Minister in Gujarat Government Purnesh Modi 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.
Significantly, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) came out in support of Rahul Gandhi and accused the BJP of indulging in “unproductive politics” to divert people’s attention from real issues.
The AAP and the Congress have been at loggerheads in the recent weeks over the services ordinance issue. The Congress has remained silent on its stand after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal sought the opposition’s support for his fight against the Centre’s ordinance on services.
The BJP welcomed the verdict and said it is the Congress leader’s “chronic habit” to abuse and defame others.
Referring to the cases Gandhi is facing, the High Court observed, “It is now the need of the hour to have purity in politics. Representatives of people should be men of clear antecedent.”
“He (Gandhi) was trying to stay the conviction on absolutely non-existent grounds. It is a well-settled principle of law that staying of conviction is not a rule, but an exception, resorted only in rare cases. Disqualification is not only limited to MPs, MLAs. Moreover, as many as 10 criminal cases are pending against the applicant.”
Justice Prachchhak pointed out that after the current complaint was filed, another complaint was submitted in a court in Pune by the grandson of Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar for the Congress leader’s “defamatory utterance against Veer Savarkar at Cambridge”. Also, a separate complaint against him was filed in a Lucknow court.
In this backdrop, refusal of stay on conviction would not in any way result in injustice to the applicant, the judge said, adding, “the impugned order passed by the appellate court is just, proper and legal, and does not call for any interference.”
While noting that there was no reasonable ground to stay the conviction at this stage, Justice Prachchhak also directed the district and sessions court of Surat to hear Gandhi’s appeal against the conviction “as expeditiously as possible”.
Referring to Gandhi’s submission that the offence for which he was convicted was not serious, the judge noted his conviction is a “serious matter affecting a large segment of the society and needs to be viewed by this court with the gravity and significance it commands”.
“The offence of Section 499 (dealing with defamation) can certainly be considered to be a serious offence of having a large public character thereby affecting the society at large in a given case wherein a large number of persons of the society have been defamed.”
Countering Gandhi’s submission that the offence was not serious, the court noted, “the accused was Member of Parliament, president of second largest national level political party and president of the party that ruled the country for more than 50 years, who was giving a public speech to the thousands of people and made a false statement in the election with clear intention to affect the result of the election”.
“It appears that the accused suggested the name of the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) to add sensation, apparently and for an intention to affect the result of the election of the candidate of the concerned constituency belonging to the political party of the Prime Minister.”
“The accused did not stop there but imputed that ‘saare choro ke naam modi hi kyu hai’. Thus, the present case would certainly fall within the category of seriousness of the offence,” the court said.
Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters in Delhi, Congress spokesperson and Gandhi’s counsel in the case Abhishek Singhvi said the verdict was “highly disappointing, but not unexpected”.
The Government is finding “newer and newer techniques to throttle his voice…We are seeing this cycle of oppression and suppression play out once again. We will fight it. Rahul Gandhi will fight it. And if the last nine years are anything to go by, they will always fail to silence his vigilant voice,” Singhvi said.
AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said Rahul Gandhi is fighting the battle for truth and people’s interests, and an “arrogant regime” is using all the tricks to deter him.
BJP leader and former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters that law has caught up with Rahul Gandhi. The Congress leader refused to apologise for his ‘Modi surname’ jibe and displayed “irresponsible arrogance,” he added.
A metropolitan magistrate’s court in Surat 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, elected to the Lok Sabha from Wayanad in Kerala in 2019, was disqualified as a Member of Parliament under the provisions of the Representation of the People Act.
Gandhi then challenged the order in a sessions court in Surat, which is still pending, along with an application seeking a stay to the conviction. While granting him bail, the sessions court on April 20 refused to stay the conviction, following which, he had knocked the doors of HC. (PTI)
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