The Surat court rejected Rahul Gandhi’s plea for a stay on conviction in a 2019 defamation case on Thursday. Instead of rejection, if the court would have allowed it, it could have paved the way for his reinstatement as a Member of Parliament. RP Mogera, the judge of the court of Additional Sessions had reserved its judgment for April 20 on Rahul’s application for a stay. Further, pending his plea on a lower court’s order sentencing him to two years of imprisonment.
The Court said that “irreversible and irrevocable damage” will be caused to him. This is if he was denied the opportunity to contest elections under Section 8(3). Which is of the Representation of the People Act 1951 on account of the suspension of his plea for stay on conviction.
Kirti Panwala is the lawyer of Gandhi and Naishadh Desai a Congress leader. She said that the Surat court’s orders will be challenged in the Gujrat high court on Friday. Desai also added, “We have full faith that the judiciary will uphold justice and save the democracy.”
Jairam Ramesh, the senior Congress leader. He is also a Supreme Court lawyer said that the party will strain for every likely way to topple Gandhi’s conviction.
The Congress leaders are also worried about the fact that Gandhi will lose his eligibility to run in elections. Especially for the next eight years if the court doesn’t overturn his conviction along with the two years imprisonment.
Why was Rahul Gandhi convicted?
Gandhi was convicted the previous month by Purnesh Modi. He is a state legislator from Bhartiya Janta Party in Gujrat after the comments he made in a speech. He said,” How come all thieves have the name, Modi?”. The comments made by him were deemed to be insulting to the nation’s leader, Modi, and other citizens surnamed Modi. The 52-year-old leader lost his parliament seat in March after being convicted and sentenced to two years in jail for commenting Modi and his people.
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