Setback to Rahul Gandhi, Gujarat HC Says No Interim Order in His Favour in ‘Modi Surname’ Remark Case

In a setback to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the Gujarat High Court on Tuesday refused to pass any interim order in his favour in a criminal defamation case over his “Modi surname” remark.

The Congress leader’s counsel, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, requested the high court to pass an interim order.

However, Single-judge Justice Hemant Prachchhak denied Singhvi’s request and said the final verdict will be pronounced after the Court reopens post the summer vacation of the Court, Bar and Bench reported.

The Gujarat High Court on Saturday began hearing Rahul Gandhi’s plea challenging the order of the Surat sessions court declining a stay to his conviction in the case.

Justice Hemant Prachchhak of the high court took up the criminal revision application filed by Gandhi challenging the April 20 order of the sessions court. If the high court allows his plea, it could pave the way for Gandhi’s reinstatement as a Member of Parliament.

On Wednesday, high court judge Justice Gita Gopi recused herself from hearing the case after it was brought before her for an urgent hearing. The matter was then assigned to the court of Justice Prachchhak.

A metropolitan magistrate’s court in Surat on March 23 sentenced the former Congress president to two years in jail after convicting him under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 499 and 500 (criminal defamation) in a 2019 case filed by Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Gujarat MLA Purnesh Modi.

Following the verdict, Gandhi, elected to the Lok Sabha from Wayanad in Kerala in 2019, was disqualified as a an MP under the provisions of the Representation of the People Act.

Gandhi, 52, challenged the order in the Surat sessions court along with an application seeking a stay to the conviction. While granting him bail, the court on April 20 refused to stay the conviction.

Purnesh Modi filed a criminal defamation case against Gandhi over his ‘How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?’ remark made during an election rally at Kolar in Karnataka on April 13, 2019.

(With PTI inputs)

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