Rahul Gandhi lost his seat in Parliament as a result of the Gujarat High Court’s refusal to grant a stay on his conviction and two-year prison sentence in a criminal defamation case. The court also admitted that he was the subject of an additional 10 defamation lawsuits.
The Gujarat High Court rejected Rahul Gandhi’s request for a stay of execution in the defamation case using the phrase “Modi surname” and upheld the Sessions Court’s ruling, handing the Congress leader a setback.
Rahul Gandhi had filed a petition in May asking for a stay of execution in the 2019 “Modi surname” defamation case. The Gujarat High Court has reserved judgment on the petition. Rahul Gandhi had been denied any sort of temporary relief by the court.
On April 25, the Congress leader filed a petition with the Gujarat High Court to appeal the Surat Sessions Court’s decision to not grant him a stay of execution for the criminal defamation case.
In his judgement, Additional sessions judge Robin P Mogera had cited Gandhi’s stature as an MP and former chief of the country’s second-largest political party and said he should have been more careful.
He cited prima facie evidence and observations of the trial court and said it transpires that Rahul Gandhi Gandhi made certain derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi apart from comparing people with the same surname with thieves.
Judge Mogera said the surname of the complainant in the case, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker Purnesh Modi, is also Modi. “…the complainant is [also an] ex-minister and involved in public life and such defamatory remarks would have certainly harmed his reputation and caused him pain and agony in society,” he said.
He cited the disqualification criteria under the Representation of the People Act and added that removal or disqualification as MP could not be termed irreversible or irreparable loss or damage to Gandhi.
Following his conviction by a lower court in the criminal defamation case, Rahul Gandhi was disqualified as Lok Sabha MP. He had been elected to Lok Sabha from Wayanad in Kerala.
The lower court sentenced the Congress leader to two years in jail on March 23 under sections 499 and 500 (defamation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in a case filed by Purnesh Modi.
At a rally in Karnataka’s Kolar in April 2019, Rahul Gandhi, in a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said, “How come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?”.
Following the session’s court verdict, Congress had said it will move the Gujarat High Court.