New Delhi, Jan 20 In an interim order passed on Monday, the Supreme Court directed the halting of trial court proceedings in a defamation case filed by a BJP worker against Congress MP Rahul Gandhi over the latter's alleged defamatory remarks against Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
During one of his public speeches in Jharkhand’s Chaibasa before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the senior Congress leader had called Shah a "murder accused".
A bench headed by Justice Vikram Nath took note of the submission advanced on Rahul Gandhi’s behalf that only an aggrieved person and not a proxy third party can institute a criminal defamation complaint.
Staying the defamation proceedings till further orders, the Bench, also comprising Justice Sandeep Mehta, remarked, "If you are not the person aggrieved, how can you have a proxy filing of complaint?"
"Issue notice to the state of Jharkhand and the complainant. All proceedings in the trial shall remain stayed till further orders," ordered the apex court.
In February last year, the Jharkhand High Court dismissed Rahul Gandhi’s plea for quashing the criminal defamation case filed by BJP leader Navin Jha.
Gandhi imputed the BJP leadership to be “liars” who are “drunk with power” and BJP workers will accept a person “accused of murder” as the party president but people will never accept the same in the Congress party.
“The people of this country will accept a lying Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership drunk with power because they know that, what the Bharatiya Janata Party is designed for. [T]hey will, accept a man accused of murder as the President of Bharatiya Janata Party but the people will never accept the same in the Congress Party,” said Rahul Gandhi. The complaint said that Rahul Gandhi’s statement was not only false, rather, it was an insult to all workers, supporters and the leaders who have been working selflessly for the BJP.
In its judgement, a bench of Justice Ambuj Nath of the Jharkhand HC said that the imputation was prima facie defamatory in nature and a prima facie case under sections 499/500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was made out against Rahul Gandhi for imputing the BJP leadership as liars and drunk with power.
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