NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the trial court proceedings against Congress MP Rahul Gandhi in a criminal defamation case filed against him for allegedly making defamatory remarks against home minister Amit Shah during the AICC’s plenary sessions in Jharkhand in 2018.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta issued notice to Jharkhand govt and the complainant seeking their response on Gandhi’s plea for quashing of the criminal proceedings.
Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing on behalf of Rahul Gandhi, raised a question on how a person, who is not affected by an alleged defamatory statement, could file a complaint. He said the principles regarding this have been settled in at least seven SC judgments. Appearing for the complainant, advocate Mahesh Jethmalani said he was opposing the plea. SC thereafter granted four weeks to Jharkhand govt and complainant Navin Jha to file their responses. “All proceedings shall remain stayed till further orders,” court ordered.
Rahul approached SC after his plea for quashing the case was rejected by Jharkhand HC, which said Gandhi’s statement was prima facie defamatory in nature. It noted that Gandhi’s speech had imputed BJP leadership “to be liars drunk with power and that BJP workers will accept a person accused of murder as BJP chief, but people will never accept the same in Congress”.
