Rahul Gandhi: Modi surname case: Rahul Gandhi offence serious, affects a large population, says Gujarat HC | India News

AHMEDABAD: Refusing to stay the conviction of Rahul Gandhi in the Modi surname defamation case, the Gujarat HC rejected the Congress leader’s contention that the offence was not of serious nature.
“The present conviction is a serious matter affecting a large segment of society and needs to be viewed by this court with the gravity and significance it commands,” Justice HM Prachchhak observed. The court said the defamation alleged was against a large identifiable class, and not just an individual, and hence “the conviction partakes the character of an offence affecting a large section of the public and, by definition, society at large, and not just an individual-centric defamation case”. The judge also said that Gandhi belongs to the oldest political party in India and “being a public personality, he is vested with the duty to exercise the vast power at his disposal with caution, ensuring (that) the dignity and reputation of a large number of people or any identifiable class are not jeopardised due to his political activities or utterances”.

The judge rejected Gandhi’s argument that if the conviction was not stayed, his disqualification from the Lok Sabha would continue.
On March 23, Gandhi was sentenced to two years in jail under IPC Sections 499 (defines defamation) and 500 (punishment for defamation) after BJP politician and former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi filed a criminal defamation case against him. The complaint was filed over comments he made during the 2019 Lok Sabha election campaign at Kolar, Karnataka, in April 2019. Gandhi took a dig at PM Narendra Modi with a reference to Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi and the common surname.

Following his conviction, Gandhi lost his LS membership as the representative from Wayanad under provisions of the Representation of the People Act. On April 20, the sessions court in Surat admitted Gandhi’s appeal challenging his conviction and suspended his sentence but refused to stay the conviction.
Refusing a stay, the HC asked the court to expedite proceedings on Gandhi’s appeal against his conviction.
Congress politicians in Gujarat said the matter will be taken to the Supreme Court for justice. “Since Gandhi had made the statement in Karnataka, it was not under the jurisdiction of the Surat court (where the suit was filed). It is the right as well as responsibility of political leaders to speak if something wrong was happening. Speaking about (businessmen) Lalit Modi and Nirav Modi, who fled after looting the country’s wealth, is not a crime,” Gujarat Congress president Shaktisinh Gohil said after the HC ruling. Gohil maintained that in the past, the apex court has provided relief to people accused in different cases.