The Supreme Court on Friday stayed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s conviction in a criminal defamation case linked to his “Modi surname” remark.
A bench of Justices BR Gavai, PS Narasimha, and PV Sanjay Kumar said that the trial court did not give any specific reasons for imposing the maximum punishment of two years’ imprisonment prescribed under the Indian Penal Code for the offence of defamation.
“Considering the aforesaid and particularly that no reasons have been given by the trial judge for maximum sentence which has incurred disqualification, order of conviction needs to be stayed during pendency of proceedings,” the apex court said.
The pendency of appeal would not come in the way of the appellate court in deciding appeals in accordance with law, the top court added.
During the hearing, the Supreme Court remarked that the Gujarat High Court order made for a “very interesting read” and that it had a “lot of preaching.”
Earlier, on July 7, the Gujarat High Court had refused to interfere with the trail court’s order to convict Gandhi.
“There is no reasonable ground to stay the conviction. The trial court’s order is just, proper and legal and there is no need to interfere with the said order. The disqualification is not limited to only MPs and MLAs,” the High Court had said.
