Relief to Rahul: The Supreme Court has provided relief to Congress party and its leader Rahul Gandhi after imposing a stay over his conviction in the Criminal Defamation case. Rahul was challenging the verdict by the Surat District Court which had found him Guilty of offence and sentenced him two years of imprisonment that is the maximum punishment which subsequently led to his disqualification as a member of Parliament.
Proceedings: Hearing the petition, the three-judge bench comprising Justice BR Gavai, PS Narasimha, and Sanjay Kumar in their 125-page judgement has stated that ramifications of the order are wide and affect not only the petitioners’ right to continue in public life but also that of the electorate which has elected him. Taking into consideration these factors and that no reason has been given by the trial judge for imposing maximum sentence, the order of conviction needs to be stayed pending final adjudication”. Abhishek Singhvi representing Gandhi told the court that the complainant surname is not Modi he changed his surname and not a single of the persons Gandhi had named during his speech have sued. Interestingly, everybody who is aggrieved in this very ‘small’ community in 13 crores, only people suing are BJP office-holders,” Gandhi has no criminal antecedents and no conviction in any cases filed by BJP workers”
Opinion: Speaking over the matter Rajasthan Congress leader Sachin Pilot said that “This is a historic decision and people’s faith in the judicial system of this country has been strengthened again”. He further added “I hope that the speaker should reinstate his membership as quickly and swiftly as he canceled his membership”. Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury sad that he will write to the Lok Sabha Chairperson to reinstate his membership so that he could attend the ongoing monsoon session.
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