In a relief to the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the Supreme Court on Monday stayed proceedings against him before a trial court in Ranchi, Jharkhand, in a criminal defamation case arising from his 2018 speech at AICC plenary session saying that the Union Home Minister Amit Shah was an “accused” in a murder case.
Staying all the proceedings before the trial court in Ranchi till further orders, a bench of Justice Vikran Math and Justice Sandeep Mehta issued notice to the Jharkhand government and the Bharatiya Janata Party leader Navin Jha – the complainant before the trial court.
“Issue notice to Jharkhand and complainant. All proceedings in the trial shall remain stayed till further orders,” the Court said in its order today.
The court gave the state government and the complainant Jha, four weeks’ to respond to Rahul Gandhi’s petition and two weeks to the Congress leader to file his rejoinder to the reply by the State government and the complainant.
Rahul Gandhi has approached the Supreme Court against the 21/16 February 2024, Jharkhand High Court order rejecting his plea for the quashing of the defamation case against him. The complaint initiating the defamation case arose from his speech on March 18, 2018, at the AICC plenary session.
In the said speech, Rahul Gandhi was reported to have said, “The people of this country will accept a lying Bharatiya Janata Party leadership drunk with power because they know that, what the Bharatiya Janata Party is designed for” and further, he had said, “They 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”.
Appearing for Rahul Gandhi, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi told the bench that the complaint was filed by a third party and that is not permissible when it comes to the offence of defamation.
“If you are not the person aggrieved, how can you have a proxy filing of complaint”, Singhvi told the bench.
Initially on July 7, 2018, Ranchi’s magistrate court of Ajay Kumar Guria dismissed the complaint by Navin Jha. However, in a criminal revision plea, the Judicial Commissioner, Ranchi, by September 15, 2018, set aside the magistrate court’s order.
Subsequently ,S.D.J.M. Ranchi on November 28, 2018, in a fresh order held that a prima facie case to be true against Rahul Gandhi under section 500 of the Indian Penal Code and directed for issuance of process.
Rahul Gandhi had approached the High Court both against September 15, 2018, order of the Ranchi Judicial Commissioner and November 28, 2018,