On remarks regarding Modi’s surname Congress leader Rahul Gandhi sentenced to two years in jail
On March 23, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was sentenced to two years in jail, as per the order of the Surat Court (Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate HH Varma), in a 2019 defamation case because of his remarks regarding Modi’s surname. In addition, Rahul Gandhi was granted bail by the Court on a bond of 10,000 rupees as well as his sentence was suspended for 30 days in order to allow him to appeal. In 2019, BJP MLA and former Gujarat Minister Purnesh Modi filed a criminal defamation case against the Congress leader who commented, “how come all the thieves have Modi as a common surname” during an election rally in Karnataka. BJP MLA claimed that the comment has been made in context to the entire Modi community.
It has been determined that Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi is out on bail in the National Herald case, granted in December 2015. Moreover, he was also granted bail in another defamation case by the Patna High Court on July 6, 2019. Along with this, Rahul Gandhi was also accused of defamation of the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank stating that the bank was involved in a swapping bank notes scam during demonetization. On 12th July 2019, Ahmedabad High Court granted him bail. Not only this, he was also granted bail by Mumbai Court in a defamation case filed by a RSS worker.
In this case, it was determined that a conviction of a lawmaker that leads to a two-year sentence for an offence may result in his disqualification from the house, as per Section 8(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. Also, Section 8(4) of the Act illustrates that the same (disqualification) comes into action after passing three months from the date of conviction. In this time period, an appeal should be applied before the higher Court against the conviction by the convicted lawmaker. These provisions were made null and void or unconstitutional in the 2013 landmark judgment of the Supreme Court, Lily Thomas v. Union of India.
In this 2013 landmark judgment, a PIL was filed by Lily Thomas in the year 2005 (a Kerala-based Lawyer) and NGO Lok Prahari challenging Section 8(4) of the RPA as ultra vires to the Constitution. The primary motive of this plea was to clean the Indian politics of criminal elements. Article 102(1) and Article 191(1) of the Indian Constitution were addressed that lays down disqualifications for membership to either house of parliament and the Legislative Assembly / Legislative Council respectively. This resulted in empowering the Center to add more disqualifications. On 10th July 2013, the top Court delivered the judgment and stated that “Parliament had no power to enact sub-section (4) of Section 8 of the Act and accordingly sub-section (4) of Section 8 of the Act is ultra vires the Constitution.”
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