AHMEDABAD: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday suffered a setback as he failed to get a judicial stay on his conviction in a 2019 criminal defamation case over his Modi surname slur. Rahul was recently disqualified as a member of the Lok Sabha after a trial court in Surat found him guilty and sentenced him to two years in prison.
A stay on his conviction would have nullified his disqualification. A Surat sessions court, which was hearing his appeal, said Rahul “should have been more careful with his words that would have a large impact on people’s minds”.
Additional Sessions Judge Robin Mogera found merit in former BJP minister Purnesh Modi suing Rahul for defamation, saying “such defamatory remarks would have certainly harmed his reputation and caused him pain and agony in society.” Judge Mogera said the Supreme Court had, in a number of pronouncements, held that the powers accorded under Section 389 (1) of the CrPC to suspend/ stay the conviction “requires to be exercised with caution and circumspection”, else it would seriously impact public perception.
The court also claimed that Rahul had “not made out any case to suspend the conviction recorded against him”. About imposing the maximum sentence of two years on Rahul, the court stated, “it appears from the record that all opportunities for cross-examining witnesses were accorded to the appellant and thus I do not agree with the contentions of... appellant being deprived a fair trial.”
Congress said it will challenge the order. “Let me assure you that the judgment will be challenged in accordance with law in the very near future,” Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said. BJP’s national spokesperson Sambit Patra hailed the verdict, saying, “It proves the law is equal for everyone.”
Erroneous, says Cong
“A most unfortunate and unsustainable legal decision has been upheld in an even more unsustainable and erroneous judgment of the Sessions Court,” Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said