The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Gujarat government and Purnesh Modi and sought a reply within 10 days over Rahul Gandhi's conviction in the Modi surname case. Hearing the matter, Justice BR Gavai told senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi that they have to hear the other side while he plea for an interim relief saying that Gandhi has suffered for over 100 days, missed the last Parliament session and missing another one at present. Sangvi also said that the elections to the parliament constituency of Wayanad, from where Rahul Gandhi was an MP, would be shortly held. The court posted the matter for hearing on August 4.
During the proceedings, Justice Gavai said that his father was with Congress, though not a member, for 40 years and his brother is still in politics and a member of the Congress. "Please take a call if you want me to hear this," he said, as per Bar and Bench.
Both petitioner and respondents said that they have reservations due to this.
Earlier, the bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices PS Narasimha and Manoj Mishra, granted the hearing after senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, representing Gandhi, requested the appeal to be listed on either July 21 or July 24. The court agreed to hear the plea on July 21, reported news agency PTI.
In his appeal filed on July 15, Gandhi argued that if the July 7 judgment is not stayed, it would severely impact free speech, expression, thought, and statements. The defamation case was initiated by Purnesh Modi, a former Gujarat government minister, in 2019 after Gandhi made a remark during an election rally in Karnataka on April 13, 2019, asking, "How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?"
Gandhi emphasised that the two-year sentence imposed on him for criminal defamation was a rare occurrence, and though the sentence had been suspended, the conviction itself had not been stayed. Consequently, he was barred from holding any political elective office for eight years, preventing him from participating in parliamentary proceedings and causing irreparable harm to his political career.
As an interim relief, Gandhi sought an ad interim ex parte stay on the Gujarat High Court's July 7 order and an ad interim stay of his conviction during the pendency of the appeal in the Supreme Court.
He argued that the judgment misapplied the term "moral turpitude" to a case that did not involve heinous offences, and such a finding could have a detrimental impact on political free speech during a political campaign. Gandhi also pointed out the mischaracterization of his one-line statement, which allegedly defamed an undefined group of 13 crore people with the surname "Modi."
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