Congress president Rahul Gandhi has landed himself in trouble after the Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a contempt notice to him for his remarks on the Rafale judgment, which the top court had said was “incorrectly attributed” to it.
The top court said it will hear the criminal contempt petition filed by BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi against Rahul Gandhi on April 30.
The court will also hear the pending review petitions against the December 14, 2018 verdict in the Rafale deal.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday expressed “his regret” in the Supreme Court over his statements in connection with the Rafale order.
In his reply to the Supreme Court, Rahul Gandhi said his statements were “used and misused by the political opponents” and that he “gave the statements in the heat of the political campaigning.”
Not satisfied with the reply, the top court issued a notice to Gandhi.
The Supreme Court had last week issued a notice to Gandhi in connection with a contempt petition filed against him by Lekhi in connection with the Rafale deal case and had sought an explanation from him.
Lekhi had claimed in her petition that “the words used and attributed by him to the SC in the Rafale case has been made to appear something else. He is replacing his personal statement as the Supreme Court’s order and trying to create prejudice”.
Meenakshi Lekhi, the BJP Member of Parliament from the New Delhi constituency, had filed a petition in the Supreme Court alleging that Rahul Gandhi had committed contempt by attributing his ‘chowkidar chor hai’ remarks on the Rafale controversy to the top court.
A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi took note of the matter and said, “We make it clear the statement attributed to this court in the address made by the respondent (Rahul Gandhi) to the media and public has been incorrectly attributed to this court. We make it clear this court never made such observation. We only decided on the admissibility of documents”.
Rahul Gandhi, while welcoming the Supreme Court’s decision to examine fresh revelations on the Rafale deal on April 10, claimed a moral victory and said that the court has made it clear that Prime Minister Narendra Modi “committed theft”.
“The Supreme Court has made it clear that ‘chowkidarji’ (watchman) has committed a theft,” Gandhi told reporters during a rally in Amethi.