Ranchi: The Jharkhand High Court on Friday extended its "no coercive step" order against former Congress president Rahul Gandhi in connection with his derogatory comments on Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The next hearing has been posted for March 17. Petitioner's advocate Binod Sahu said both parties were supposed to file written arguments before the court. But, both parties had said that their arguments were not ready. So, the matter was deferred by the High Court bench headed by Justice Ambuj Nath.
A man, named Naveen Jha, had filed a complaint against the Congress leader in court alleging that he had maligned the former BJP president during one of his speeches five years ago. Jha alleged that during his speech, Rahul had said that a murderer can become a national president of the BJP, but such a thing is not possible in Congress. Jha had then moved to court, which issued a notice for a personal appearance to Rahul Gandhi in 2018. After receiving the notice, the Congress MP filed a petition for cancelling the order at the High Court.
Earlier, in the first week of February, the High Court bench headed by Ambuj Nath had put a stay on that notice for the personal appearance of Rahul Gandhi, and the hearing was scheduled for Friday. The High Court directed 'no coercive action' against the Congress leader till further order. Of late, a controversy has erupted over the expunging of Gandhi's speech in Parliament last week, wherein he raised questions on the Adani issue. Shah had responded to the opposition criticism by saying that expunging statements were nothing new in Parliament's history.
