The Gujarat High Court will pronounce its verdict on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's plea challenging a Surat court order declining to stay his conviction in a criminal defamation case on Tuesday. The court will hear the final arguments and will likely give its judgment after 2 pm.
On Saturday, lawyer Abhishek Singhvi, representing Gandhi, told the Gujarat HC that the offence for which the Congress leader was awarded the maximum sentence of two years in jail was not serious nor did it involve any "moral turpitude", PTI reported.
"There are very serious ex-facie vitiating factors of the trial that raise grave apprehension about the process of trial," advocate Singhvi said.
"In the case of a public servant or a legislator, it has very serious additional irreversible consequences - to the person, the constituency, and also drastic consequences of re-election," he told the bench of Justice Hemant Prachchhak.
READ | Modi Surname Case: Gujarat HC Begins Hearing Rahul Gandhi's Plea Seeking Stay On Conviction
Singhvi pointed out that if a bypoll was conducted for the Wayanad constituency, which Gandhi represented before he was disqualified, its result can not be undone even if the Congress leader won his appeal against the conviction.
If this situation "is not enough to suspend conviction, then what additional circumstances can anybody have?" Singhvi asked.
Rahul Gandhi was disqualified as a member of Lok Sabha in March after he was sentenced to two years in jail by a Surat metropolitan magistrate's court in the 2019 case over his "why all thieves have Modi surname" remark. Later, the Surat sessions court declined to stay the conviction in the matter.
The former Lok Sabha MP from Wayanad had said "how come all thieves have the common surname Modi?" while addressing a rally in Karnataka ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha election, targetting PM Modi over his last name which he shares with fugitive businessmen Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi.
The case was filed by the BJP legislator Purnesh Modi.
If Gandhi fails to get his conviction reversed, his disqualification as an MP will stand and he will be barred from contesting elections for eight years. He has already been asked to vacate his government-allotted bungalow.