Rahul Gandhi defamation case: Supreme Court stays proceedings

The Supreme Court, on 20 January, Monday, stayed proceedings against Rahul Gandhi in a defamation case linked to his alleged “murderer” remark about union home minister Amit Shah in 2018.

The court issued a notice to the Jharkhand government and the complainant, Naveen Jha, seeking their responses to Gandhi’s petition. This petition challenges a February 2024 order by the Jharkhand High Court, which refused to quash the summons issued by the trial court.

The defamation case originated from Gandhi’s public speech in Jharkhand’s Chaibasa before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, during which he allegedly referred to Shah as a “murderer”. Jha, a BJP worker, filed the case in 2019, prompting legal proceedings against Gandhi.

Congress Rajya Sabha MP and senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing Gandhi, argued that the defamation case was filed by a third party, which is not permissible under Indian defamation law.

He questioned, “If you are not the person aggrieved, how can you have a proxy filing of complaint?”

A judicial commissioner in Ranchi had earlier overturned a magistrate court’s dismissal of Jha’s complaint, instructing the magistrate to review the case and issue fresh orders to proceed.

In November 2018, the magistrate court found sufficient grounds to proceed under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and issued fresh summons for Gandhi’s appearance.

Gandhi subsequently approached the Jharkhand High Court to challenge the summons, but a single bench judge dismissed his petition, asserting that his remarks were “prima facie defamatory in nature”.