The Supreme Court on Friday overturned Rahul Gandhi‘s 2019 criminal defamation conviction over his “Modi surname” remark and restored his status as a Member of Parliament. The stay will also allow him to participate in next year’s national elections.
Delivering the verdict, Justice BR Gavai said the ramifications of Rahul Gandhi’s conviction are far-reaching as it will also affect the rights of the voters who elected him.
“The judge gave no reason for imposing the maximum sentence, sentencing must be postponed until the final judgment,” the court said.
Purnesh Modi, a former minister in the Gujarat government, filed a criminal case against Gandhi in 2019 for defamation over his “How come all thieves have Modi as a common surname?” a remark made during an election rally in Kolar, Karnataka on 13 April 2019.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who represented Rahul Gandhi, argued that the case brought by BJP MLA Purnesh Modi was “strange” against the Congress leader as no person he had named during his speech had sued.
Interestingly, anyone who is aggrieved in this very ‘small’ community of 13 million, only the people suing are BJP office holders. Very strange,” he said.
“There is no uniformity, no homogeneity, no identifiability, no boundary line in the 13 million… That’s the first point. Secondly, [Purnesh Modi] himself said that his original surname was not Modi,” he added, as reported by Live Law.
Senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, who appeared for Purnesh Modi, said the petitioner must be in a very strong position for the court to set aside the verdict without re-evaluating the evidence as the appeal is pending in the appellate court.
Justice BR Gavai considered whether the constituency of Wayanad was unrepresented because of the belief of the petitioner was a relevant factor and said that the right of voters was affected. Gavai said the judge must explain why he imposed the maximum sentence.
“One of the factors is … if a constituency is unrepresented in parliament, isn’t that a reason? The judge does not whisper about the need to impose the maximum sentence. You are not only affecting the rights of one individual but the entire electorate of the constituency,” Justice Gavai said, according to Bar and Bench.
In an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, Rahul Gandhi again refused to apologize for the remark about his Modi surname that led to his conviction in a defamation case and subsequent expulsion from Parliament, but urged the Supreme Court to stand by his conviction and say it was not guilty. .
“Using the criminal process and consequences under the Representation of the People Act to make a complainant apologize without fault is a gross abuse of the judicial process and should not be recognized by this court.
“The petitioner maintains and has always maintained that he is not guilty of the crime and that the conviction is unsustainable and if he had to apologize and compound the crime he would have done so much sooner,” Rahul Gandhi said in the affidavit.
