Bombay High Court reserves order on Rahul Gandhi plea in PM Modi defamation case

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday reserved its order on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's plea seeking the quashing of a defamation complaint pertaining to alleged remarks made by him against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2018.

A single-judge bench of Justice NR Borkar heard advocates at length before reserving the order. The matter is related to a criminal defamation proceeding initiated before the Metropolitan Magistrate Court at Girgaon on August 28, 2019 by a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member named Mahesh Shrishrimal.

He has said in his complaint that Gandhi referred to PM Modi as "commander-in-thief" while addressing a public rally in Rajasthan in September 2018. Shrishrimal has alleged that the Congress leader also targeted the prime minister with the same term on social media as well.

The complainant claimed that Gandhi's alleged name-calling amounted to describing all BJP members and Indian citizens as thieves.

The magistrate's court had issued a summons to Gandhi, who challenged it in the High Court, terming the complaint frivolous and vexatious, which deserved to be quashed.

In his petition, the Congress leader said that the complaint was motivated by the sole purpose of furthering the complainant's latent political agenda.

His counsel cited Section 199(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) – a provision which prescribes that a sessions court is required to take cognisance of an offence where the offence is alleged against a public servant in respect of conduct in the discharge of his public functions.

Gandhi's lawyers argued that, in view of the aforementioned provision, a legal bar existed on Shrishrimal against filing a complaint.

It was also argued before the High Court by the petitioner that a political party is not identified as a group of persons eligible to file a defamation complaint in accordance with explanation 2 under Section 499 of the Indian Penal Code.

Gandhi's legal team argued that this disbars Shrishrimal from filing a complaint in a representative capacity.

The complainant opposed the petition, asserting that he had made out a prima facie case against Gandhi by deposing in support of his complaint and submitting evidence.

It was further argued that Shrishrimal was an aggrieved person himself. He pointed out that the complaint was filed in the capacity of a member of BJP's Maharashtra unit.

- Ends

(With inputs from PTI)

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