100 Days Since Lok Sabha Disqualification, Rahul Gandhi Still Awaiting Gujarat HC Decision
New Delhi: The Gujarat high court has yet to reach a verdict on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's petition seeking a stay on his conviction, even after nearly 100 days have passed since his disqualification from the Lok Sabha, the Tribune reported.
Gandhi was disqualified following his conviction in a defamation case for his remarks on the ‘Modi surname’ and sentenced to two years in jail – the maximum possible punishment under the defamation law.
“We cannot put pressure on the court to expedite the verdict,” Pankaj Champaneri, the counsel representing Rahul, told the Tribune.
The disqualification order was issued by the Lok Sabha Secretariat on March 24. The disqualification, however, came into effect from March 23, the day the Surat court had pronounced him guilty, the report said.
On May 2, while hearing Mr. Gandhi’s plea seeking a stay on his conviction, the high court declined to grant any relief. The interim stay would have allowed Gandhi to get his disqualification lifted, the Hindu reported.
The Gujarat high court had last heard Gandhi’s petition on May 3 and Justice Hemant Prachchhak has said that the verdict would be pronounced by him after the court’s summer vacation, the Tribune report said.
Also read: Why Rahul Gandhi’s Disqualification May Be a Turning Point
The high court had gone on summer vacation from the first week of May to June 4, and only urgent matters were heard by the vacation bench. “It has not even been listed for pronouncement of order,” a source from the high court told the Hindu.
“The court re-opened on June 5 after the vacation. The judge had also sought the record, running into hundreds of pages, from the trial court,” Champaneri told the Tribune, indicating that studying the records could be time consuming.
A local court in Surat, acting on a criminal defamation complaint filed by BJP legislator Purnesh Modi, had convicted Gandhi for his statement “why all thieves have the Modi surname in common” in March this year.
After his conviction and sentencing, he approached the Surat Sessions Court in April seeking suspension of sentencing and a stay on the conviction pending his appeal. While the sessions court granted him bail, it had refused to stay Gandhi’s conviction.
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