- Wednesday, April 23, 2025
As a result of the order, Gandhi will remain disqualified as a parliamentarian and will not be able to contest the 2024 general election if a top court doesn’t stay the conviction.
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIAN National Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will remain disqualified as a parliamentarian after the high court of the western state of Gujarat on Friday (7) upheld a lower court’s order in convicting him in a defamation case against the Modi surname.
The conviction is “just, proper and legal,” the court said.
The former parliamentarian from Wayanad in the southern state of Kerala will now approach the Supreme Court.
Because of his disqualification that day soon after he was convicted by the court in March, Gandhi is unlikely to return to the parliament for the monsoon session starting July 20. If the 53-year-old fails to get a relief in the top court, he will not be able to contest next year’s parliamentary election.
Gandhi’s two-year jail term was suspended by a sessions court in Gujarat in April after he appealed his criminal conviction by a magistrate court for mocking the surname of prime minister Narendra Modi at an election rally in the southern state of Karnataka in April 2019.
A Gujarat lawmaker from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and former minister of the state Purnesh Modi filed the case against Gandhi who said, “How come all thieves have the common surname Modi?” He was referring to three unrelated Modis — PM Modi; Nirav Modi, a fugitive Indian diamond tycoon and Lalit Modi, an executive banned from the Indian Premier League cricket tournament.
The high court also said there were as many as 10 cases pending against the Congress leader, one of the fiercest critics of Modi, and he was “seeking a stay on absolutely non-existent grounds”.
The judge said that a stay on conviction is not a rule.
Gandhi had challenged the initial order of conviction in the sessions court and requested for its suspension. While he was granted bail, the court refused to stay the conviction and the leader then went to the high court.
The latest order serves a big blow to the Congress as it prepares for a number of state elections later in the year besides the big one next year.
