BJP MLA Purnesh Ishwerbhai Modi, the complainant who filed a defamation case against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in Gujarat, has filed a caveat in the Supreme Court in connection with the Gujarat High Court’s decision in the ‘Modi surname’ remark case.
Purnesh Modi has filed a caveat asking to be heard by the apex court if Rahul Gandhi moves a plea challenging the Gujarat High Court’s decision to deny a stay in his conviction in the Modi surname defamation case.
The caveat was filed by BJP MLA Modi through his lawyer PS Sudheer on July 7 – the same day that a single judge bench of the Gujarat High Court pronounced its decision.
A caveat can be filed by a litigant to ensure that they can be heard in case a court passes any order on the appeal of the opposing party challenging the ruling of a lower court.
The Gujarat High Court on July 7 dismissed an appeal by Rahul Gandhi seeking interim relief in the conviction in a criminal defamation case filed by Purnesh Modi in a Surat court.
Dismissing the Congress leader’s appeal, Gujarat High Court Justice Hemant Prachchhak said, “It is now need of the hour to have purity in politics. Representatives of people should be man of clear antecedent.”
Modi filed a case against Gandhi after the former had said “How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?” during an election rally in Karnataka in 2019.
A metropolitan magistrate’s court in Surat found Gandhi guilty of criminal defamation and sentences him to two years in jail under sections 499 and 500 (defamation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The conviction meant that Gandhi, then a Lok Sabha MP from Wayanad, was disqualified from his MP post.
After the decision of the Gujarat High Court, Rahul Gandhi confirmed that he intends to take the case to the Supreme Court, alleging that the ruling government was finding ‘newer techniques’ to stifle his voice for speaking the truth.
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