Gujarat High Court to hear Rahul Gandhi’s plea seeking stay on Modi surname defamation case today

The high court in India’s western Gujarat state will hear a plea filed byopposition Congress leader Rahul Gandhi challenging the order of a lower court in Surat after it refused to stay his conviction in a criminal defamation case over his “Modi surname” remark.

The case will be heard by a new judge after Justice Geeta Gopi recused herself from the hearing, and on April 26 asked the court registry to hand over the case to Chief Justice AJ Desai or assign it to a different bench.

The defamation case will now be heardby Justice Hemant Prachchhak, the cause list published by the high court said.

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In his plea, Gandhi has contended the grounds of disproportionate punishment saying that such conviction has caused him irreversible harm by way of losing his Lok Sabhamembership.

On March 23, a metropolitan magistrate's court sentenced the former lawmaker to two years in jail after convicting him under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 499 and 500 (criminal defamation) in a 2019 case filed by Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) MLA from Gujarat Purnesh Modi.

Following the verdict, Gandhi, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) from the Wayanad constituency in Kerala, was disqualified under the provisions of the Representation of the People Act.

According to the law, if a member is convicted of any offence for two or more years, his or her seat will be declared vacant. One can only stay in the parliament if the conviction is suspended.

If his conviction is stayed, Rahul Gandhi could be reinstatedas the Member of Parliament.

Gandhi challenged the order in a sessions court in Surat along with an application seeking a stay to the conviction. While granting him bail, the court on April 20 refused to stay the conviction.

Following the setback, he had to vacate his official residence in Delhi. The Lok Sabha Housing Committee had sent him a letter to vacate his 12, Tughlaq Lane bungalow, which he had since 2005.

The row erupted during a campaign in 2019 for the Lok Sabha elections when Rahul Gandhi had said, "How come all thieves have the common surname Modi", while targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his surname, which is the same as fugitive businessman Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi.

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