The Supreme Court on Friday stayed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's conviction in a criminal defamation case for his alleged 'Modi' surname statement at a political rally in Karnataka in 2019.
According to a three-judge Bench led by Justice B.R. Gavai, the Surat Chief Judicial Magistrate, in addition to brutally chastising Mr. Gandhi for his claimed statement, failed to provide even a single basis for sentenceing the Congress leader to the maximum jail of two years in prison.
The court stated that the Magistrate insisted on the harshest punishment while the penal statute offered for a choice of imprisonment, fine, or both.
According to the Bench, the Gujarat High Court, while dealing with the many parts of the case in a "voluminous" 120-page judgement, had somehow bypassed addressing the matter of a complete absence of justifications for imposing Mr. Gandhi the highest punishment.
The purported statement, however, was deemed "not in good taste" by the court.
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