The Supreme Court on Monday stayed proceedings of a defamation case filed against Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi in a Jharkhand court.
Hearing the Congress leader’s plea challenging the Jharkhand High Court’s order, a bench comprising Justice Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta passed an interim order staying proceedings against Gandhi in Ranchi Magistrate Court. The bench also issued notices to the Jharkhand government and the complainant Naveen Jha and sought their responses.
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A defamation case was filed against Gandhi in 2018 over his alleged derogatory remarks against the Bharatiya Janata Party and its leadership. During his speech, Gandhi allegedly said “BJP was drunk with power” and its leader Amit Shah was a “murder accused”. While the Ranchi Magistrate Court initially dismissed Naveen Jha’s plea, it issued fresh orders after the Ranchi judicial commissioner overturned the judgment and sent it back for review.
Though Gandhi approached the Jharkhand High Court against the order, the bench held prima facie, there was a case against Gandhi. The High Court had observed, “On the face of it, the statement suggested that Gandhi implied that the leadership of the BJP was intoxicated with power and consisted of deceitful individuals,” Bar and Bench reported.
"It further means that the party workers of Bhartiya Janata Party will accept such person/persons as their leader. This imputation is prima facie defamatory in nature," the High Court had said.
