Congress terms erroneous and unsustainable after Surat court rejects Rahul Gandhi's plea for suspension of conviction

Congress termed erroneous and unsustainable a Surat court judgement rejecting Raamation case related to his Modi surname remark, and said the judge seems over-shadowed by the high office of the prime minister.

Congress senior spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said they would move the High Court very shortly as the judgement is fallacious and contrary to all basic principles of law.

The court of Additional Sessions Judge R P Mogera rejected Gandhi’s application for a relief against a magisterial court order sentencing him to two years in jail in the defamation case. A most unfortunate and unsustainable legal decision of the magistrate has been upheld in an even more unsustainable and erroneous judgement of the Sessions court given today. The conviction has been upheld contrary to all basic elementary principles of law, Singhvi said.

Arguing that the judgement is wrong with no legal standing, he said the court has noted that Prime Minister Modi has been defamed along with 13 crore others with the Modi surname, which shows that the judge is over-shadowed by the exalted office of the prime minister. Clearly, unfortunately the judgement is influenced by the high office of the prime minister, forgetting that the honourable prime minister is not the complainant, Singhvi said.

Sources said that Singhvi, himself a noted lawyer, is likely to appear before the High Court in Gujarat while challenging the Sessions Court order. There is a legal error in the judgement. We respect all courts and we have the High Court and Supreme Court. We have several grounds to challenge the judgement. We will move the high court in the very near future, Singhvi said.

We are confident that superior courts with constitutional power of judicial review, namely the High Court and the Supreme Court, have the power and will set right the legal errors found in these two judgements. We are clear that the judgement in devoid of valid sustainable legal reasoning, he said.

Gandhi had on April 3 approached the sessions court for appeal against the lower court’s order. Training his guns on the BJP government, Singhvi said, its speed and zeal to act after the magistrate’s original order show they are motivated by political animosity from house taking, to electricity connection disconnection to notices etc.

They sometimes threaten you with privilege notices, sometimes it is suspension, but they do not know the stuff Rahul Gandhi is made of. They do not know the resilience of the Congress party. His voice will not be silenced because he speaks to the court of people.

He did not speak anything which is remotely defamatory in this case he will continue to speak fearlessly in the court of the people. Clearly these pressure tactics from defamation, privilege notices to not (allowing him) to speak in Parliament to suspension etc are intended to silence his strong, fearless voice on issues of misgovernance, on corruption, on Adani-gate etc, the Congress leader said.