Rahul Gandhi Challenges Gujarat High Court’s Refusal to Stay Conviction in Supreme Court

New Delhi, July 15, 2023: Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi has filed a petition in the Supreme Court, seeking to challenge the Gujarat High Court’s decision to deny a stay on his conviction in a criminal defamation case. This conviction led to his disqualification as a Lok Sabha MP earlier this year.

Rahul Gandhi was disqualified from his position as a Member of Parliament on March 24, 2023, following a conviction by a Gujarat court on charges of criminal defamation. The charges stemmed from his remark during an election rally in Karnataka on April 13, 2019, where he questioned, “How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?”

A successful stay on his conviction could potentially result in his reinstatement as a Lok Sabha MP. However, the sessions court and the Gujarat High Court have not granted him any relief thus far.

The petitioner in the case, BJP MLA Purnesh Modi, had previously filed a caveat in the Supreme Court, requesting to be heard in the event that Rahul Gandhi files a plea challenging the high court’s verdict.

The high court dismissed Rahul Gandhi’s appeal, emphasizing the importance of integrity in politics. It stated that elected representatives should possess clear antecedents and that staying a conviction is an exception rather than a rule, applied only in rare cases. The court found no reasonable grounds to stay Rahul Gandhi’s conviction.

Rahul Gandhi, aged 53, had been elected to the Lok Sabha from Wayanad in Kerala in 2019. His disqualification as an MP was enforced under the Representation of the People Act, following a two-year jail sentence handed down by a metropolitan magistrate’s court in Surat. The conviction was based on sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) related to criminal defamation.