Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has filed a petition in Supreme Court against the order of the Gujarat High Court which refused to stay his conviction and sentencing in the ‘Modi-surname remark’ defamation case. The petition challenges the orders of lower courts which convicted Rahul Gandhi and sentenced him to two years in prison on charges of defamation for his remarks during the 2019 Lok Sabha election campaign. The conviction in the case led to his disqualification from Lok Sabha.
In its order on 7 July, the Gujarat High Court refused to stay the conviction of Rahul Gandhi saying that the Congress leader “breached the modesty", and “moral turpitude" with his remarks.“It is a serious matter affecting a large segment of society and needs to be viewed by the court with the gravity and significance it commands...It is now the need of the hour to have purity in politics. Representatives of people should be men of the clear antecedent," Justice Hemant P. Prachchhak observed while rejecting the petition seeking a stay on his conviction.
Senior leader Abhishek Singhvi said the Congress had full faith in the judiciary. “Now, we are going to Supreme Court…. but the largest court is public and its conscience. People have understood the basic fact that the cottage industry of BJP, based on vendetta, has unleashed these diverse complaint-filing activities across the country to throttle Rahul Gandhi’s voice," he added.Rahul Gandhi was first convicted in March by a magisterial court in Gujarat after a BJP leader, Purnesh Modi, filed a criminal complaint. Notably, Purnesh Modi has already filed a caveat in Supreme Court seeking a hearing if the apex court hears Rahul Gandhi's challenge to his conviction