'Murder Accused-BJP President' Remark: Jharkhand High Court Dismisses Rahul Gandhi's Plea To Quash Defamation Suit Filed By BJP's Navin Jha

The Jharkhand High Court has dismissed the petition filed by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to quash the ongoing proceedings in the trial court in a criminal defamation suit filed against him for calling former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president and current Union Home Minister Amit Shah a "murder accused".On February 16, Gandhi's written version was presented in the court, after which, the bench of Justice Ambuj Nath reserved the decision.BJP Leader Navin Jha had filed a complaint case against Rahul Gandhi, alleging therein that in the AICC Plenary Sessions dated 18.03.2018, Rahul Gandhi had made a speech against BJP and labelled Shah as a murder accused.Being aggrieved by his statement, Jha, filed the present complaint case. It was stated in the complaint petition that the statement made by Gandhi, 'was not only false rather, it was an insult to all workers, supporters and the leaders who have been working selflessly for the Bhartiya Janata Party.'Following this Magistrate court at Ranchi dismissed Jha's complaint, aggrieved by which, he filed a Criminal Revision Petition before the Judicial Commissioner, Ranchi.The Judicial Commissioner, Ranchi set aside the order dismissing the complaint petition observing, “A Prima facie reading of the speech indicates that the reference to the Bhartiya Janata Party and members has been abundantly and repeatedly made. It is to be seen whether these references amount to defamation or not. It is not to be seen whether they are incidental or not, because a portion may amount to an imputation made to harm one's reputation while also being indicated to the entire speech at the same time” .The Judicial Commissioner remanded the matter back to the Magistrate with a direction to re-appreciate the evidence available on the record and pass an order afresh on the point of determining prima facie material to proceed in the matter.The Magistrate, on the basis of the direction given in the Criminal Revision, passed a fresh order on 28.11.2018 and came to a finding that a prima facie case was made out against Gandhi under section 500 of the Indian Penal Code and issued process for his appearance.The questions before the Court were whether the statements made by Gandhi would give rise to Cause of action to the opposite party no, 2 to file the present complaint case as it was not made against him in personal capacity; Whether the aforesaid statement will prima facie amount to defamation?Gandhi had challenged the Judicial Commissioner's order and the subsequent order of the Magistrate.The Court observed,“The speech made by Mr. Rahul Gandhi has imputed the Bhartiya Janata Party leadership to be liars who are drunk with power and that the Bhartiya Janata Party workers will accept a person accused of murder as the president of Bhartiya Janata Party but people will never accept the same in the congress party. Prima facie this statement points out that Mr. Rahul Gandhi has imputed that the Bhartiya Janata Party leadership was drunk with power and was composed of liars. It further means that the party workers of Bhartiya Janata Party will accept such person/persons as their leader. This imputation is prima facie defamatory in nature.”While expounding on Section 499 read with Explanation-2 of the Indian Penal Code the Court emphasized that it was evident that the expression “any person” in Section 499 of the Indian Penal Code includes a company or association or a collection of a persons and Bharatiya Janata Party is a prominent political party which is well identifiable and will come within the meaning of Explanation-2 of Section 499 IPC.The Court held, “Opposite party no. 2 being a party worker of Bhartiya Janata Party in my view, has locus standi to file the aforesaid complaint case under Sections 499/500 of the Indian Penal Code.”“It appears that prima facie case under sections 499/500 of the Indian Penal Code is made out against the petitioner Mr. Rahul Gandhi for imputing the Bhartiya Janata Party leadership as liars and drunk with power,” the Court added.Advocate Kaushik Sarkhel, the counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner submitted that Jha had no locus standi to file this case, and that the provision under section 199 Cr.P.C. had not been complied with. Sarkhel also submitted that the Revisional Court had overlooked the mandate of law as enshrined in Section 398 of Cr.P.C. as it had directed the subordinate magistrate to make further enquiry into the complaint.Senior Counsel, Advocate Ajit Kumar, representing Navin Jha, argued that the current application was filed subsequent to the second order issued by the Magistrate. This order found a prima facie case under Section 500 of the IPC and mandated Gandhi's appearance. Kumar noted that this order had not been contested in the present application.Furthermore, Kumar highlighted that Gandhi had contested the order from the Judicial Commissioner through a Criminal Revision. He asserted that this crucial detail was omitted...

'Murder Accused-BJP President' Remark: Jharkhand High Court Dismisses Rahul Gandhi's Plea To Quash Defamation Suit Filed By BJP's Navin Jha

Bhavya Singh

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