Supreme Court Stays Defamation Case Against Rahul Gandhi Over Amit Shah Remarks

Supreme Court: On Monday, the Supreme Court issued an order preventing, and the Supreme Court stayed the criminal proceedings against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for having uttered a statement that called Union Home Minister and former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah a murder accused.

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Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta served notice to the Jharkhand government and the complainant returnable on the petition of Gandhi praying for the quashing of the case.

Meanwhile, a top lawyer, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appeared for Rahul Gandhi in the case and argued that 'the hurdle in this case is that the complaint with respect to the offence of defamation has been filed by a third party.'

"If you are not the person aggrieved, how can you have a proxy filing of complaint?" Singhvi asked.

"Issue notice to Jharkhand and complainant. All proceedings in trial shall remain stayed till further orders," the Court ordered.

The case has been pending since then because Jha accused Gandhi of delivering a speech on March 18, 2018 criticising the BJP and accusing Shah of being involved in murders.

After the complaint was rejected by a court at Ranchi, Jha filed a revision petition in the court of the judicial commissioner at Ranchi.

On September 15, 2018, the revision of the order of 2019 was passed by the Judicial Commissioner at Ranchi. The case was put back before the magistrate court.

The magistrate was directed to reconsider the evidence on record and pass a fresh order for the determination of prima facie material on the matter.

Then, another order was passed by the magistrate in the case on November 28, 2018. The magistrate held that there existed sufficient evidence to establish a prima facie case against Gandhi under Section 500 of the IPC. Subsequently, the magistrate had issued Gandhi a summons immigration notice.

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Gandhi then appealed to the High Court against the order of the Ranchi judicial commissioner passed on September 15, 2018.

Justice Ambuj Nath of the single judge observed that Gandhi had alleged that the leaders of the BJP are liars who's intoxicated with power; the workers of the BJP would accept a person accused of murder as their president.

The High Court noted that these statements by Gandhi, on correct interpretation of the sentiments contained therein, appear to be defamatory in nature under Section 499 of the Indian Penal Code.

It stated that the content of the statement, on the face of it, tends to invoke Gandhi's implications that the leadership of the BJP was drunk with power and made up of deceitful persons.

"It further means that the party workers of Bhartiya Janata Party will accept such person/persons as their leader. This imputation is prima facie defamatory in nature," the Court added.

The Court also referred to Explanation 2 to Section 499 of IPC, which states that imputation against any company, association or a collection of persons amounts to defamation. Thus, Gandhi's plea was rejected.

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