Aastha Thakur
Published on: 07 December 2022 at 20:46 IST
The Bombay High Court granted interim relief till January 25, 2023 to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi from appearance before a local court in a defamation complaint pertaining to his alleged remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The bench of Justice Amit Borkar admitted the plea filed by Gandhi challenging the summons issued to him by the local court.
The hearing in the matter is adjourned till January 20, 2023.
The matter of defamation was filed by one Mahesh Shrishrimal, for Gandhi’s “commander-in-chief” remark against Prime Minister Modi in 2018 in Rafale fighter jet deal matter. The defamation complaint was filed over the alleged comments made on the prime minister.
The appeal was filed challenging the summons issued against him, on which the HC in November 2021 directed the magistrate to adjourn the hearing on the defamation complaint.
It was maintained before HC that the criminal proceedings were initiated against Gandhi in August 2019. However, the Congress leader in his plea submits he came to knowledge regarding this only in July 2021.
The complainant alleges that due to defamatory statements against Modi, he was allegedly trolled on media by various news agency channels and social media platforms.
Gandhi stated in his petition, filed through Advocate Kushal Mor, that the instant complaint was a classic example of a frivolous and vexatious litigation motivated by the sole purpose of furthering the complainant’s latent political agenda.
He also said the complainant had no locus to file the complaint since defamation can be initiated only by the person who has been allegedly defamed.
Hence, the Congress leader had sought for quashing of magistrate’s order and stay on the proceedings pending hearing of the petition.