Ranchi: Twelve days after the Supreme Court of India stayed the conviction of Congress leader and Member of Parliament Rahul Gandhi in the Modi surname remarks case, the Jharkhand High Court on Wednesday exempted the Congress leader from personel appearance in the lower court the case, sources said.
It is learnt that the single judge bench of justice SK Dwivedi quashed the order of physical presence of Rahul Gandhi during the hearing in the MP/MLA court. Rahul had filed a petition in the High Court seeking exemption from personal appearance in the lower court which was accepted by the high court. Rahul Gandhi's advocate Dipankar Roy had requested the court to exempt Rahul from personal appearance under Cr PC 205.
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Earlier the lower court had directed Rahul Gandhi to appear personally during the hearing in the Modi surname remarks case. Rahul Gandhi had later approached the High Court seeking exemption from personal appearance in the court. The case arises from the remarks by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during a speech at Moharabadi Maidan in Ranchi in the year 2019 ahead of the Lok Sabha election that year.
In his election speech, Rahulhad asked “Why all thieves happen to be Modis” in an apparent jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Following the speech, a Ranchi resident Pradeep Kumar Modi had filed a defamation case against Rahul Gandhi for the remarks. The hearing is going on in the case in the Ranchi MP-MLA court.
The Jharkhand HC exempting Rahul from personal appearance comes 12 days after the Supreme Court stayed the Congress leader's conviction by a Surat court in Gujarat in the Modi surname remarks case. A day after his conviction, Rahul was disqualified as Member of Parliament. But the SC stay on the conviction revived his membership of the Lok Sabha.
