- The Congress party will now approach the Supreme Court for relief in the defamation case over which has been disqualified as a Member of Parliament
New Delhi,
July 7, 2023
(Press Conference by Dr. Abhishek Singhvi, Senior Advocate and Member of Parliament)
“Friends, today a single judge bench of the Gujarat High Court passed an order dismissing Shri. Rahul Gandhi’s application asking for a stay on conviction. This is highly disappointing, but it is not unexpected.
Let us begin by recalling the dates, because the dates are relevant: The appeal against the Sessions Court’s order was filed on April 25th, 2023. The matter was heard on April 29th, and May 2nd, 2023. On May 2nd, 2023, the Judgment is reserved for orders. It is pronounced today, July 7th, after 66 days.
We have yet to examine the judgment and will do so once it becomes available.
However, four things I will reiterate:
First, and in my humble opinion, this jurisprudence that the courts in question are evolving is, for want of a better word, unique. It has no precedent or parallel with any other judgments ever passed on the subject of defamation laws.
We have, in our previous press conferences, explained the law of defamation and how it allows only a person who is defamed, not an amorphous, undefinable community, to file a case.
I ask again, the question I asked on March 23rd, a question which none of these benches seem to be answering: “How are the complainants personally defamed?” This is the first condition precedent of the law of defamation.
Second, malice, which is an essential ingredient, is absent. Then where have these benches found the malice which has escaped everyone other than the BJP members/complainants?
Third, what is the damage or loss suffered by these individuals? Basic questions. All left unanswered.
It has become clear now, that that jurisprudence has no bearing on what is happening in Gujarat. The simplest way to prove me wrong, is to find a single case, where a conviction has occurred in identical or similar circumstances.
Neither of the courts below have relied on any such judgments. We will wait to see if the High Court has some judicial justification for its conclusion. The reasoning will be for everyone to see.
Second, it surprises me that while in almost every judgment in this matter so far, attention is drawn by the bench to other cases of Shri. Rahul Gandhi.
In this case no one notes that the complainants in all those cases, just like this one, are BJP leaders, workers or supporters. There is literally no fourth category.
The question therefore arises, that these courts have been quick to point out that Rahul Gandhi in those other defamation cases is accused (not convicted, mind you) — and the implication being that such pending cases have a bearing on their decision — but then why do they uniformly fail to take into account that the accusations all seem to be coming from one source?
And at no point, are the bona fides or motives of that source ever examined forget being addressed. Forget the frivolous and obviously orchestrated nature of these complaints.
There is a crystal clear conspiracy and pattern of suppression all being executed in plain sight by the BJP and its affiliates. Of throttling the Opposition and anyone who dares to criticize this hollow and petrified government. Should not the courts find this relevant as well?
Third, we were surprised and indeed astonished to find, this morning, a reference by the learned Single Judge of the HC as follows: “At least 10 criminal cases pending against him [Shri. Rahul Gandhi]. Even after the present case, some more cases filed against him. One such is filed by grandson of Veer Savarkar.”
How is this relevant in the slightest? At the end of arguments, a cutting was handed over by the complainant’s counsel of a case filed on April 12th, 2023 post the conviction by the trial court on March 23rd, 2023.
The cutting is neither pleaded nor otherwise argued. Yet this becomes a major basis of appeal.
Fourth, make no mistake: this impacts every single one of you. This is an important legal battle regardless of the personalities involved. It is, in effect, a battle to limit the arena of free speech. To dictate what can and cannot be said.
To state from on high, that free speech is what we find harmless, not the law.
Tomorrow, a story by a journalist will be called defamatory because one individual claims, without the slightest bit of proof, that an entire amorphous community has been offended.
Defamation law, on paper and in practice outside the state of Gujarat, was written to prevent exactly such abuses. And now, it is being undone in full public view, in the state of Gujarat.
Finally, the ultimate apex court is the court of the “janta”. The people see what is happening, how an entire cottage industry has been unleashed against one individual, how it is being done because he is the only leader from the Opposition who they cannot break.
I will not reiterate the gymnastics that took place at the stage of trial, where the complainant got a one year stay on his own complaint, and then revived it after there was a change on the bench.
And it was that second magistrate, who proceeded to pass that order of conviction. Those are facts, and the facts speak for themselves.
The more they have attempted to silence him (Rahul Gandhi); though harassment by the ED and CBI, the breach of privilege notices, the petty removal of SPG security to the disqualification from Parliament, he remains unmoved. And that is what exposes their fear.
Friends, I will quote from my previous press conferences on the issue, on March 23rd, March 24th, and April 20th, 2023, because those predictions have become self-fulfilling prophecies:
This act of obvious vendetta “signifies the systematic, repetitive, emasculation of democratic institutions by the ruling party. It signifies the strangulation of democracy itself.”
I had drawn your attention to the “repeated examples of unthinkable assaults on freedom of speech… on freedom after speech”.
That after the speech “you will be visited with the worst possible consequences, be it criminal, be it civil, be it incarceration, be it intimidation and be it harassment in every sphere of life”. Today, I show you the extent and degree to which the government will pursue these acts of suppression.
श्री राहुल गाँधी सत्य के राह के निडर यात्री हैं, वो भाजपा की साज़िश और झूठ का पर्दाफ़ाश करते रहेंगे !
I had told you then itself, this government is rattled because he speaks with facts and figures on demonetization, on the government’s clean chit to China, be it on the struggling economic situation. It is consistent aggression that has compelled the government to find newer and newer techniques to throttle his voice.
Friends, we are seeing this cycle of oppression and suppression play out once again. We will fight it. Shri. Rahul Gandhi will fight it. And if the last nine years are anything to go by, they will always fail to silence his vigilant voice.
हमें विश्वास है कि न्यायपालिका सत्य का ही साथ देगी, अहंकारी सत्ता को अंत में कड़ा जवाब देगी !”
