‘Modi surname’ case: Supreme Court to hear Rahul Gandhi’s plea on Friday
New Delhi (IANS). The Supreme Court will hear on Friday the petition of former Congress President Rahul Gandhi in the ‘Modi surname’ defamation case. He has challenged in the Supreme Court the refusal of the Gujarat High Court to suspend his sentence in this case.
As per the list published on the website of the apex court, Justice B.R. Gavai, P.S. Narasimha and Prashant Kumar Mishra will continue hearing the former MP’s plea.
The Supreme Court had on July 21 agreed to hear the special petition filed by the Congress leader and issued notice whether his sentence should be kept suspended till the hearing of the petition is over.
The bench had refused to grant any interim relief on Gandhi’s plea without hearing both the sides. It posted the matter for August 4, giving BJP leader Purnesh Modi and others 10 days to present their case.
The Congress leader had told the court in an affidavit that the complainant had called him “arrogant” as he refused to apologize in the ‘Modi surname’ defamation case. It added that Gandhi had always maintained that he was innocent and that “if he had to apologise, he would have done so long ago”.
In his counter affidavit, the BJP MLA said that Gandhi has shown “arrogance” and the Supreme Court should make him pay by dismissing his petition. It said that Gandhi made the defamatory statements out of “personal enmity” towards the country’s elected prime minister, and that he “does not deserve any sympathy” in the matter of the sentence awarded.
On July 21, the court agreed to hear a petition in the Supreme Court for urgent hearing in the case by senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Gandhi. Earlier on July 15, the Congress leader had approached the Supreme Court challenging the Gujarat High Court order. A bench of Justice Hemant Prachak in the Gujarat High Court refused to stay the sentence awarded to him by the trial court.
The Congress leader was disqualified from the Lok Sabha in March by a Surat court after he was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison in the April 2019 case. During a nomination rally in April 2019, he said, “Why all thieves have Modi as their surname.” He meant a sarcastic comparison between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and fugitive scamsters Lalit Modi and Nirav Modi.
