Everyone is equal before us: Supreme Court on early hearing request in defamation case against Rahul Gandhi

The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the complainant in the criminal defamation case against Rahul Gandhi to file an early hearing application if he wants to the matter to be taken up on urgent basis.

A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana underscored that "everyone is equal before us" and asked the complainant, a former director of the Border Roads Organisation, to follow the procedure.

Senior Advocate Gaurav Bhatia, appearing for the complainant, said that Gandhi is not a VVIP and the appeal filed by Gandhi before the apex court against conginsance taken by the Magistrate, was not listed for hearing for the last five months.

"He is not a VVIP. The matter was listed five months ago also and was not taken up. This does not augur well for the institution as well," Bhatia said.

"Let us follow the procedure. File an application seeking early hearing. Everyone is equal before us. Please file an application for early hearing. We will take it up," the CJI said.

The criminal defamation case against Gandhi stemmed from a remark by him that "Chinese soldiers are beating up Indian Army personnel in Arunachal Pradesh" — a criticism directed at the government over Chinese actions at the Line of Actual Control.

A Bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Augustine George Masih had earlier stayed the case against Gandhi while also asking him why he was making statements on social media instead of raising such issues in the parliament.

That Bench had also asked whether his statements were based on any credible material.

The appeal by Gandhi was filed against an Allahabad High Court order which had upheld the summons issued by a Lucknow court to Gandhi in connection with the case.

The case stemmed from a complaint filed by lawyer Vivek Tiwari on behalf of Uday Shankar Srivastava, a former director of the Border Roads Organisation with a rank equivalent to an Army Colonel.

Tiwari alleged that Gandhi’s remarks on December 16, 2022 regarding the December 9, 2022 clash between the Indian and Chinese armies were derogatory and defamatory towards the Indian military forces.

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Alok Verma directed Gandhi to appear for hearing on March 24 in the defamation case. Challenging this, Gandhi moved the Allahabad High Court.

The High Court dismissed Gandhi's plea and held that under Section 199(1) of the CrPC, an individual who is not the direct victim of an offence can still be regarded as an "aggrieved person" if the offence has caused them harm or adversely affected them.

Noting that the complainant had expressed deep respect for the Army and was personally hurt by the comments, the Court held that he qualified as an aggrieved person under Section 199 of the CrPC and was therefore entitled to file the complaint.

Gandhi then approached the Supreme Court.

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