The Supreme Court on Monday stayed criminal defamation proceedings against Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi related to certain remarks allegedly made by him on the Indian Army in context of the 2020 Galwan Valley clash with China.
While passing the interim order, the Bench of Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice AG Masih, however, expressed its strong displeasure against the remarks made by Gandhi.
Appearing for Gandhi, Senior Advocate Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi contended that if an opposition leader was not allowed to raise such issues, it would be an unfortunate situation. If he couldn’t say such things that were already published in the media, he could not be the Leader of Opposition, Singhvi added.
The Apex Court observed that Gandhi could whatever he wanted to, in the Parliament. There was no reason to say such things in the social media posts.
It asked Singhvi as to how he came to know that 2000 square kilometres of Indian territory were occupied by the Chinese. Was he present there? It further raised questions regarding the credibility of the material. If Gandhi were a true Indian, he wouldn’t have said all this, it added.
Singhvi submitted that the Congress leader was only on the point of proper disclosure and raising concerns about the suppression of information.
In a similar case, a Lucknow court on July 15 granted bail to Gandhi, booked for allegedly making derogatory comments against soldiers of the Indian Army during his Bharat Jodo Yatra.
The order was passed by Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Alok Verma after Gandhi personally appeared before the MP-MLA Special Magistrate Court to seek bail after remaining absent during the last five hearings in the case.
The ACJM directed Gandhi to furnish personal bond Rs 20,000 and two sureties of the like amount. The court listed he matter for further hearing on August 13.
Appearing for the Congress leader, Advocate Pranshu Agrawal argued that Gandhi was innocent and no offence was made out against him
The Counsel representing the complainant argued that Gandhi had hurt the dignity and respect of the Indian Army and attempted to bring its morale down. Therefore, he should not be granted bail.
Gandhi appeared before the Lucknow court following the rejection of his petition by the Allahabad High Court in May, wherein he had challenged both the defamation case and the summoning order passed in February 2025 by the MP-MLA court in Lucknow.
The single-judge Bench of Justice Subhash Vidyarthi had observed that there was no doubt that Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India guaranteed freedom of speech and expression.
However, this freedom was subject to reasonable restrictions and did not include the freedom to make statements defamatory to any person or the Indian Army.
A case was registered against Gandhi on the basis of a defamation complaint filed by former Border Roads Organisation (BRO) Director Uday Shankar Srivastava, claiming that Gandhi made the alleged derogatory remarks on December 16, 2022, during his Bharat Jodo Yatra.
The complaint stated that Gandhi’s objectionable comments, pertaining to a clash between the Indian and Chinese armies on December 9, 2022, had defamed the Indian Army.
It specifically alleged that Gandhi has repeatedly stated in a very derogatory manner that the Chinese army was ‘thrashing’ Indian soldiers in Arunachal Pradesh, and that the Indian Press would not ask any question in this regard.