Lok Sabha Restores Rahul Gandhi's Membership After Supreme Court's Order Staying Conviction In 'Modi-Thieves' Defamation Case

The Lok Sabha Secretariat issued a notification restoring the membership of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in view of the Supreme Court's August 4 order suspending his conviction in the criminal defamation case over the "why all thieves have Modi surname" remark. The Top Court's order had paved the way for his reinstatement as a Lok Sabha MP.Gandhi, who represents Wayanad (Kerala) in the Lok Sabha, had moved the Supreme Court challenging the Gujarat High Court's refusal to stay his conviction in the case, which resulted in his disqualification from the Lok Sabha. Our readers may note that as per Apex Court's Judgment in the case of Lok Prahari vs. Election Commission of India and others [2018], once the conviction of an MP or MLA has been stayed by the appellate court under section 389 of the Cr. P. C., the disqualification under sub-sections 1, 2 and 3 of Section 8 of the Representation of the People’s Act, 1951 will not operate and this, in essence, leads to the revival of the membership.Gandhi has been embroiled in a controversy over his ‘Why all thieves share the Modi surname’ remark dating back to a political rally at Karnataka’s Kolar in 2019. Accusing Gandhi of defaming everyone with a ‘Modi’ surname, Bharatiya Janata Party MLA and former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi filed a complaint under Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 over this alleged remark.A local court in the Surat district of Gujarat handed him a conviction and a two-year jail sentence in March this year. Although the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate HH Varma suspended his sentence and granted him bail in the case to move an appeal within 30 days, his conviction was not suspended, and therefore, on the very next day, the former MP representing Kerala’s Wayanad constituency was disqualified as a Lok Sabha member in terms of Article 102(1)(e) of the Constitution read with Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. The 1951 Act provides that a person would be disqualified from their membership of either House of the Parliament or the state legislative assembly or council if convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for two years or more and shall continue to be disqualified for a further period of six years after their release.After his conviction and subsequent disqualification from the Lok Sabha, Gandhi moved an appeal in a city sessions court in Surat challenging his conviction, along with two applications – one for suspension of sentence, and another for suspension of conviction. The sessions court, on April 20th, dismissed Rahul Gandhi’s application seeking a stay on his conviction in the case, although he was granted bail till the court disposed of his appeal. Against the ruling of the sessions court, Gandhi filed a criminal revision application before the High Court. However, the HC too, refused to grant him interim relief and ultimately dismissed his petition last month as the the single-judge observed that the case concerned a large identifiable class, i.e., the ‘Modi’ community, and not just an individual. The court also said that as a senior leader of the oldest political party in India, Gandhi was vested with a duty to ensure that the dignity and reputation of a large number of persons or any identifiable class was not ‘jeopardised’ due to his political activities or utterances.The high court further said that Gandhi made a false statement to affect the poll results and used Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s name only to add sensation to his speech. Besides this, the high court also acknowledged the existence of 10 additional defamation complaints against Gandhi, including one filed by the grandnephew of Vinayak Savarkar in a Pune court over allegedly defamatory comments made against Savarkar in a speech delivered at Cambridge University.Finally, after exhausting all his remedies, the Congress leader moved to the Supreme Court challenging the Gujarat High Court’s decision to decline his plea for a stay on his conviction. The former MP has, inter alia, maintained that he had no mala fide intention nor any intent to defame the complainant.

Lok Sabha Restores Rahul Gandhi's Membership After Supreme Court's Order Staying Conviction In 'Modi-Thieves' Defamation Case

Sparsh Upadhyay

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