SC extends relief for Rahul Gandhi in Veer Savarkar defamation case

New Delhi, July 25
The Supreme Court on Friday extended its order staying the summons issued to Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi in a criminal defamation case related to his alleged derogatory remarks about freedom fighter Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.

In November 2022, during his Bharat Jodo Yatra, Rahul Gandhi made defamatory remarks against Savarkar at a rally in Maharashtra’s Akola.

A Bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and AG Masih deferred the scheduled hearing for four weeks after a letter seeking adjournment was submitted in the matter.

In the meantime, the Justice Datta-led Bench ordered extension of the interim relief originally granted to Rahul Gandhi on April 25.

Further, it asked the complainant, advocate Nripendra Pandey, to file his reply within two weeks and granted liberty to Rahul Gandhi to file a rejoinder affidavit, if any, within two weeks thereafter.

In an earlier hearing, the apex court had cautioned Rahul Gandhi against making “irresponsible statements”, specifically asking him not to speak anything against freedom fighters.

The Supreme Court had warned that if the Congress leader made any such comments in the future, it would initiate "suo motu" action against him.

“Let's be clear, any further statement and we will take suo moto! We will not allow you to speak anything about our freedom fighters. They have given us freedom, and this is how we treat them?” said the Justice Datta-led bench as it dealt with Rahul Gandhi’s petition to quash a 2022 defamation case filed against him.

After senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing Rahul Gandhi, gave an oral undertaking that the Congress leader would refrain from making such comments in future, the apex court had passed an interim order staying the order of the lower court summoning him to face trial for the offences under Sections 153-A and 505 of the now-repealed Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Before this, the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court had declined to exercise its inherent powers in favour of Rahul Gandhi, who had sought the quashing of the entire legal proceedings.

A single-judge Bench of Justice Subhash Vidyarthi, in its order passed on April 4, said that Rahul Gandhi had the statutory remedy of filing a revision against the order of the trial court.

Under the IPC, 1860, Section 153-A addressed the offence of “promoting enmity between different groups based on religion, race, caste, etc.," and Section 505 dealt with “statements conducing to public mischief".