New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday put on hold the proceedings before the trial court in connection with a criminal defamation case filed against leader of the opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi for allegedly saying that BJP members were 'liars' and "drunk with power" and also for calling Union Home Minister Amit Shah a "murder-accused".
The matter came up before a bench led by Justice Vikram Nath and comprising Justice Sandeep Mehta. Senior advocate AM Singhvi, representing Gandhi, submitted that there are two principles of the law said in seven cases and three of them are recent. “One is when you are not the person aggrieved you cannot have a proxy filing the complaint….”, said Singhvi. Senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani represented the complainant BJP worker Navin Jha. Justice Nath said, “issue notice…till further order the proceedings before the trial court will remain stayed”, and asked the complainant to file his counter affidavit.
Jha filed a complaint against Congress MP, alleging that he delivered a speech in March 2018, criticizing the BJP and accusing Shah of being involved in murder.
The plea by Congress MP in the apex court challenged last year's Jharkhand High Court verdict rejecting his plea to quash a defamation case filed by a BJP leader over his alleged remark against Shah. In the high court, a plea was filed by Gandhi to quash an ongoing 2018 defamation case in a trial court. The Jharkhand High Court judge, Justice Ambuj Nath, declined to entertain Gandhi’s plea after finding his alleged comments were "prima facie defamatory in nature."
