The Supreme Court today stayed the conviction of Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi in the criminal defamation case against him for his ‘Modi surname’ remark.
The trial judge has awarded the maximum sentence of two years in the case, the top court observed in its judgement, adding that it would not have attracted disqualification if the sentence was a day lesser. Rahul Gandhi had also in April told a sessions court in Surat his conviction by a magistrate’s court in the 2019 defamation case was erroneous, patently perverse, and he was sentenced in a manner so as to attract disqualification as a Member of Parliament.
No doubt that the utterances by the petitioner were not in good taste, the court said, and the petitioner ought to have been more careful in making speeches.
“The ramifications of disqualification not just affect the right of the individual but also the electorate,” it said.
