The High Court of Gujarat on Tuesday reserved its orders on the petition filed by Congress leader and former MP Rahul Gandhi seeking a stay on his conviction in the defamation case filed against him for his ‘Modi thieves’ remark.
The Single-Judge Bench of Justice Hemant Prachchhak refused to grant any interim protection to the Congress leader and said the decision on whether a stay could be granted on his conviction would be delivered by the bench after the High Court vacations.
Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Rahul, had sought interim protection for the Congress leader.
Earlier on April 26, Advocate Pankaj Champaneri, Counsel for Rahul Gandhi, had mentioned the matter in the High Court, seeking an urgent hearing in the matter.
Justice Gita Gopi had then recused herself from hearing the appeals, stating that the papers should be presented before the Acting Chief Justice for assigning a new bench.
On April 20, a Sessions Court in Surat had dismissed the plea by Gandhi seeking suspension of his conviction by the Magistrate court.
The Sessions Court refused interim relief to the Congress leader on the grounds that the disqualification would not amount to be an irreparable or an irreversible loss to him.
The former MP from Wayanad constituency in Kerala was convicted on March 23 by a Magistrate court in Surat for his remark that all thieves have Modi surname, which he had made during an election rally in Karnataka’s Kolar district in 2019.
He had said, “Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, Narendra Modi. How come all the thieves have ‘Modi’ as a common surname?”
Former BJP Member of Legislative Assembly, Purnesh Modi, had taken exception to the speech, claiming that Gandhi humiliated and defamed persons with the Modi surname.
The Magistrate court in Surat accepted the contention of Purnesh Modi that by his speech, Gandhi had intentionally insulted the people having the surname ‘Modi’.
In his 168-page judgment, Judge Hadirash Varma had observed that since Gandhi was a Member of Parliament (MP), he should have realised that whatever he said, was bound to have a greater impact.
The judge held that Rahul had taken the reference of the surname of current Prime Minister Narendra Modi for satisfying his political greed and insulted and defamed about 13 crore people living in the country having the surname ‘Modi.
The sessions judge refused to stay the same, leading to the present plea before the High Court.