'Judgement disappointing but not unexpected': Congress to approach Supreme Court over Guj HC decision on Rahul

New Delhi: Hours after the Gujarat High Court on Friday refused to stay the conviction of former Congress President Rahul Gandhi in 'Modi surname' defamation case, the party termed the judgement "disappointing but not unexpected" and it will approach the Supreme Court.

Addressing a press conference here at the party headquarters, Congress leader and senior lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi said: "Today, a single judge bench of the Gujarat High Court passed an order dismissing Rahul Gandhi’s application asking for a stay on conviction. This is highly disappointing, but it is not unexpected."

He said that the appeal against the sessions court’s order was filed on April 25 and the matter was heard on April 29, and May 2 in the high court.

"On May 2, the judgment was reserved for orders. It was pronounced today after 66 days. We have yet to examine the judgment and will do so once it becomes available," Singhvi, who had appeared for Rahul Gandhi in the high court, said.

He said that this jurisprudence that the courts in question are evolving "is, for want of a better word, unique".

"It has no precedent or parallel with any other judgments ever passed on the subject of defamation laws," Singhvi said, adding that in his previous press conferences have explained the law of defamation and how it allows only a person who is defamed, not an amorphous, undefinable community, to file a case.

"I ask again, the question I asked on March 23, a question which none of these benches seem to be answering: How are the complainants personally defamed? This is the first condition precedent of the law of defamation. Second, malice which is an essential ingredient, is absent. Then, where have these benches found the malice which has escaped everyone other than the BJP members/complainants? Third, what is the damage or loss suffered by these individuals? Basic questions. All left unanswered," he said.

He further said that it has become clear now, that that jurisprudence has no bearing on what is happening in Gujarat.

"The simplest way to prove me wrong, is to find a single case, where a conviction has occurred in identical or similar circumstances. Neither of the courts below have relied on any such judgments. We will wait to see if the high court has some judicial justification for its conclusion. The reasoning will be for everyone to see," he said.

Singhvi also pointed out that in almost every judgment in this matter so far, attention is drawn by the bench to other cases of Rahul Gandhi.

"In this case, no one notes that the complainants in all those cases, just like this one, are BJP leaders, workers or supporters. There is literally no fourth category. The question therefore arises, that these courts have been quick to point out that Rahul Gandhi in those other defamation cases is accused and not convicted and the implication being that such pending cases have a bearing on their decision.

"There is a crystal-clear conspiracy and pattern of suppression all being executed in plain sight by the BJP and its affiliates. Of throttling the opposition and anyone who dares to criticise this hollow and petrified government. Should not the courts find this relevant as well?" Singhvi asserted.

He also said that he was surprised and indeed astonished to find a reference by the Gujarat HC judge as follows: "At least 10 criminal cases pending against him (Rahul Gandhi). Even after the present case, some more cases filed against him. One such is filed by grandson of Veer Savarkar."

"How is this relevant in the slightest. At the end of arguments, a cutting was handed over by the complainant’s counsel of a case filed on April 12, 2023 post the conviction by the trial court on March 23. The cutting is neither pleaded nor otherwise argued. Yet this becomes a major basis of appeal," Singhvi said.

He warned that this decision impacts every single one. "This is an important legal battle regardless of the personalities involved. It is, in effect, a battle to limit the arena of free speech. To dictate what can and cannot be said. To state from on high, that free speech is what we find harmless, not the law," he said.

The Congress leader said that defamation law, on paper and in practice outside Gujarat, was written to prevent exactly such abuses. And now, it is being undone in full public view, in Gujarat.

"Finally, the ultimate apex court is the court of the 'janata'. The people see what is happening, how an entire cottage industry has been unleashed against one individual, how it is being done because he is the only leader from the opposition who they cannot break. I will not reiterate the gymnastics that took place at the stage of trial, where the complainant got a one year stay on his own complaint, and then revived it after there was a change on the bench. And it was that second magistrate, who proceeded to pass that order of conviction. Those are facts, and the facts speak for themselves," he said.

This act of obvious vendetta “signifies the systematic, repetitive, emasculation of democratic institutions by the ruling party. It signifies the strangulation of democracy itself", he added.

Singhvi said that the party will approach the Supreme Court soon to challenge the HC judgement.