The Gujarat High Court on Friday rejected Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's request to suspend his two-year prison sentence for criminal defamation. The court ruled that staying a conviction is not the norm and should only be done in rare cases.
"There are at least 10 criminal cases pending against him. Even after this case, more cases have been filed against him. People's representatives should have a clear character. One such case was filed by the grandson of Veer Savarkar in a court in Pune, as the accused used defamatory terms against Veer Savarkar in Cambridge. A complaint was also filed in a court in Lucknow," Justice Hemant Prachchhak said.
The court also said that there was no reason to stay the conviction in this case. "In any case, the conviction would not result in any injustice to the applicant. The conviction order is just, proper, and legal. There is no need to interfere with the said order. Therefore, the application is dismissed," the court said.
Background
A sessions court in Surat had dismissed Gandhi's request to suspend his conviction on April 20. The sessions court ruled that Gandhi's disqualification would not be an "irreparable or irreversible loss" to him.
Gandhi was convicted by a magistrate court in Surat on March 23 for his remark "all thieves have Modi surname," which he made at an election rally in Karnataka's Kolar constituency in 2019.
Gandhi had linked Prime Minister Narendra Modi with fugitives like Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi in his speech. He said, "Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, Narendra Modi. How come all the thieves have 'Modi' as a common surname?"
Purnesh Modi, a former BJP member of the legislative assembly (MLA), took exception to the speech, claiming that Gandhi had humiliated and defamed people with the Modi surname.
The magistrate court in Surat accepted Modi's contention that Gandhi had intentionally insulted people with the 'Modi' surname.
In his 168-page judgment, Judge Hadirash Varma said that Gandhi, as a member of Parliament (MP), should have exercised restraint. "The accused had taken the reference of the surname of the current Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, to satisfy his political greed and insulted and defamed 13 crore people living in the whole of India having the surname 'Modi,'" the judge said.
The sessions judge refused to stay the magistrate court's conviction, leading to Gandhi's appeal to the high court.
Gandhi was disqualified from the Lok Sabha due to his conviction in the case. The disqualification will remain in effect as a result of the high court's ruling.
