New Delhi: East Congress President Rahul Gandhitries with Supreme Court This has been caused by two statements, just three days apart, that he made in the heat and dust of campaigning during the last general elections in April 2019.
He was forced to tender an unconditional apology to the SC in May 2019 in a case related to the Rafale fighter jet deal with France. Second statement resulted in conviction to the trial court defamation The case, in which he will find out on July 21 whether the Supreme Court will stay his sentence for his reinstatement as MP.
While campaigning in Amethi campaigning, from where he lost more than 55,000 votes to Smriti Irani, he referred to the Supreme Court’s decision to consider the leaked documents related to the Rafale fighter jet deal with France during the hearing of the review petitions and said on April 10, “SC has made it clear that” the Chowkidar has stolen “BJP leader Meenakshi Ji” .
At the outset he expressed regret within parentheses for his spurious pass to wrongly attribute the support of his statement to the Supreme Court. But when the court pressed on him, he tendered an unconditional apology to get relief from the contempt fire.
The bench accepted his belated apology. Earlier, Gandhi had said that the ‘chowkidar chor’ tirade was uttered as ‘rhetoric in the heat of the moment’ and his statement has been used and misused by his political opponents to show that he deliberately used his statement The Supreme Court was held responsible. Along with the apology, he had clarified that the attribution to the Supreme Court was “unintentional, unintentional and unintentional”. The latter affidavit saved Gandhiji from sadness but not from shame.
The SC, in its November 14, 2019 judgement, had said, “It is unfortunate that without verification or even considering the order passed, Gandhi thought fit to make statements such as this Court’s The charges leveled against him have been stamped. Prime Minister, who was far away from the truth. It is not a sentence or a one-off observation, but a statement repeated in different ways that conveys the same thing. No doubt the person in contempt should have been more careful.” It closed the contempt proceedings “with a warning to the contemnor to be more careful in future”.
For his statement at an election rally in Kolar near Bengaluru on April 13, 2019, just three days after his ‘chowkidar chor’ remark in Amethi, his Modi-surname remark led to a defamation case filed by BJP worker Purnesh Ishwarbhai Modi. Allegedly accused of defaming all persons with the surname Modi Surat.
The Chief Judicial Magistrate, Surat convicted Gandhi on 23 March and sentenced him to 2 years imprisonment, which led to his disqualification as MP from Wayanad, from where he won in March 2019 by a record margin of over 4.31 lakh votes. 24. He appealed to the Sessions Court against the verdict and sought a stay on the conviction. But the sessions court rejected his plea for stay. His appeal before the HC against the rejection of the stay on conviction was dismissed on July 7, forcing him to move the Supreme Court, which is scheduled to hear his plea on July 21.
Apart from seeking a stay of conviction on several grounds including the claim that the trial court “foolishly” convicted him despite complete absence of material and evidence constituting the offense of defamation, one ground is common in both the cases – Gandhi claims that there is a political vendetta by the BJP and its supporters to suppress his free speech and eliminate political debate in a democracy. What is staring at Gandhi is the concurrent rejection of the stay by the Sessions Court and the HC to stay his sentence. The HC had commented on similar lines. What the Supreme Court told him in November 2019 – “We believe that persons occupying such important positions in the political spectrum should be more careful.”
He was forced to tender an unconditional apology to the SC in May 2019 in a case related to the Rafale fighter jet deal with France. Second statement resulted in conviction to the trial court defamation The case, in which he will find out on July 21 whether the Supreme Court will stay his sentence for his reinstatement as MP.
While campaigning in Amethi campaigning, from where he lost more than 55,000 votes to Smriti Irani, he referred to the Supreme Court’s decision to consider the leaked documents related to the Rafale fighter jet deal with France during the hearing of the review petitions and said on April 10, “SC has made it clear that” the Chowkidar has stolen “BJP leader Meenakshi Ji” .
At the outset he expressed regret within parentheses for his spurious pass to wrongly attribute the support of his statement to the Supreme Court. But when the court pressed on him, he tendered an unconditional apology to get relief from the contempt fire.
The bench accepted his belated apology. Earlier, Gandhi had said that the ‘chowkidar chor’ tirade was uttered as ‘rhetoric in the heat of the moment’ and his statement has been used and misused by his political opponents to show that he deliberately used his statement The Supreme Court was held responsible. Along with the apology, he had clarified that the attribution to the Supreme Court was “unintentional, unintentional and unintentional”. The latter affidavit saved Gandhiji from sadness but not from shame.
The SC, in its November 14, 2019 judgement, had said, “It is unfortunate that without verification or even considering the order passed, Gandhi thought fit to make statements such as this Court’s The charges leveled against him have been stamped. Prime Minister, who was far away from the truth. It is not a sentence or a one-off observation, but a statement repeated in different ways that conveys the same thing. No doubt the person in contempt should have been more careful.” It closed the contempt proceedings “with a warning to the contemnor to be more careful in future”.
For his statement at an election rally in Kolar near Bengaluru on April 13, 2019, just three days after his ‘chowkidar chor’ remark in Amethi, his Modi-surname remark led to a defamation case filed by BJP worker Purnesh Ishwarbhai Modi. Allegedly accused of defaming all persons with the surname Modi Surat.
The Chief Judicial Magistrate, Surat convicted Gandhi on 23 March and sentenced him to 2 years imprisonment, which led to his disqualification as MP from Wayanad, from where he won in March 2019 by a record margin of over 4.31 lakh votes. 24. He appealed to the Sessions Court against the verdict and sought a stay on the conviction. But the sessions court rejected his plea for stay. His appeal before the HC against the rejection of the stay on conviction was dismissed on July 7, forcing him to move the Supreme Court, which is scheduled to hear his plea on July 21.
Apart from seeking a stay of conviction on several grounds including the claim that the trial court “foolishly” convicted him despite complete absence of material and evidence constituting the offense of defamation, one ground is common in both the cases – Gandhi claims that there is a political vendetta by the BJP and its supporters to suppress his free speech and eliminate political debate in a democracy. What is staring at Gandhi is the concurrent rejection of the stay by the Sessions Court and the HC to stay his sentence. The HC had commented on similar lines. What the Supreme Court told him in November 2019 – “We believe that persons occupying such important positions in the political spectrum should be more careful.”