The Supreme Court on Friday reserved its order on the contempt petition filed by BJP MP Meenakashi Lekhi against Rahul Gandhi for attributing his ‘chowkidar chor hai’ comment to the apex court.
The Congress president, on the other hand, requested the top court to close the criminal contempt proceedings against him since he has apologised over the wrong attribution of the remarks.
Appearing for Gandhi, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that Gandhi has tendered an unconditional apology in the matter.
But senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Lekhi, told the bench that the apology tendered by Gandhi should be rejected and action must be taken against him as per the law.
He also argued that the court should ask Gandhi to make an apology to the public for his remarks.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and comprising Justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph is hearing the case against the 48-year-old Congress chief.
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.
Rahul Gandhi, while welcoming the Supreme Court’s decision to examine fresh revelations on the Rafale deal on April 10, made remarks about the prime minister and corruption
Ecstatic over the Supreme Court’s decision, Gandhi 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.
Lekhi said that the imputation that the court had ruled as such was contempt because it imputed words to the court that it hadn’t said.
Gandhi had on Wednesday filed a three-page affidavit stating his unconditional apology to the apex court.
Read More: Rahul Gandhi tenders ‘unconditional apology’ to SC for ‘wrongly attributing’ Rafale remark to court
In an earlier affidavit, Gandhi had said that he had no intention of dragging the court into politics and alleged that it was Lekhi who is playing politics. He had earlier expressed regret for his remarks.
On 30 April, Singhvi had said that the Congress president will file a fresh affidavit with an apology after BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that Gandhi has only expressed regret even as he “deliberately” put words in the mouth of the court.