Rahul Gandhi was sentenced in March by a Surat court to two years in prison for criminal defamation in a complaint filed by BJP MLA Purnesh Modi who objected to Gandhi’s remarks about thieves with the Modi surname.
Stating that it will deliver its verdict on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s plea for a stay on his conviction in a 2019 defamation case only after the summer vacation ends in the first week of June, the Gujarat High Court Tuesday declined to grant him interim protection.
Gandhi was sentenced in March by a Surat court to two years in prison for criminal defamation in a complaint filed by BJP MLA Purnesh Modi who objected to Gandhi’s remarks about thieves with the Modi surname.
Justice Hemant Prachchhak said the verdict would be pronounced only after the summer vacation. The High Court will remain closed for summer vacation from May 8 to June 4 — vacation benches will only take up urgent matters.
Justice Prachchhak will be unavailable from May 4 since he will be travelling abroad.
On Tuesday, he called for records of the defamation trial before the Surat magistrate court for his perusal.
Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi , Gandhi’s counsel, sought interim relief by way of a stay on the conviction in the period leading up to the final pronouncement of the verdict after the judge indicated the expected timeline of the verdict.
Justice Prachchhak, however, said he would be passing final orders in the case and refused to grant any interim stay.
An interim stay on conviction could have permitted Gandhi to approach Parliament and seek to be re-instituted to Lok Sabha for the interim period, one of the opposing lawyers told The Indian Express. Gandhi remains protected from arrest owing to the stay on his sentence and bail.
The High Court, in its order, recorded that “since the court has finally heard the matter, in the interest of justice, the interim protection cannot be granted at this stage. Hence, the request for interim protection is refused.”
Meanwhile, complainant Purnesh Modi, through senior counsel Nirupam Nanavati, opposing Gandhi’s plea for a stay on conviction, submitted Tuesday that the offence of defamation will be considered as serious since Parliament itself, while enacting Section 8 (3) of the Representation of the People Act, had considered convictions which has sentence of 2 years or more as serious and thus provisioned for disqualification.