BJP MLA Purnesh Modi has filed a caveat in the Supreme Court requesting an opportunity to be heard if Rahul Gandhi files a plea challenging the high court order. The Gujarat High Court’s single judge bench, on July 7, dismissed Gandhi’s plea seeking a stay on his conviction in the defamation case. According to the Supreme Court sources, Purnesh Modi, through his lawyer P S Sudheer, has filed a caveat on the same day in the apex court.
Gujarat High Court Justice Hemant Prachhak, while rejecting his petition, had remarked, “It is the need of the hour to have purity in politics now.”
The court further emphasised that public representatives should have a “clear antecedent” and that a stay on conviction is not the norm but an exception granted only in rare cases. It found no reasonable grounds to stay Gandhi’s conviction.
A stay on Gandhi’s conviction would have allowed him to be reinstated as a Lok Sabha MP. In response, the Congress announced that it will approach the Supreme Court against the verdict.
Purnesh Modi, a former minister in the Gujarat government, had filed a criminal defamation case in 2019 against Rahul Gandhi for his remark, “How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?” made during an election rally in Kolar, Karnataka, on April 13, 2019.
On March 23 this year, a metropolitan magistrate’s court in Surat convicted Rahul Gandhi under sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for criminal defamation and sentenced him to two years in jail.
Following the verdict, Gandhi, who was elected to the Lok Sabha from Wayanad in Kerala in 2019, was disqualified as a Member of Parliament under the provisions of the Representation of the People Act.
Gandhi subsequently challenged the order in a sessions court in Surat and requested a stay on the conviction. However, on April 20, the sessions court declined to grant a stay, leading him to approach the high court.