13 crore Modis, no definite community: Rahul Gandhi's bail plea
The district and session court in Gujarat's Surat on Monday extended Congress leader and disqualified MP, Rahul Gandhi's bail in the criminal defamation case against him for the "Modi surname" remark till April 13. In his appeal seeking a stay on his conviction, he said the verdict was "patently perverse" and there is no definite Modi community.
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Targeting PM Narendra Modi at a rally in Kolar, Karnataka, ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Gandhi remarked, "How come all the thieves have the common surname, Modi?" A magistrate court in Surat last month convicted Gandhi of defaming the "entire Modi community" on a complaint filed by BJP MLA Purnesh Modi. He received a two-year sentence, which disqualified him as an MP.
Verdict influenced by my status as MP: Gandhi
Gandhi's plea stated that the verdict against him was "erroneous" as the trial court treated him harshly because it was "overwhelmingly influenced" by his status as an MP. He claimed he was sentenced in a manner that he would be disqualified from the Lok Sabha. Before the verdict, the BJP attempted to get Gandhi suspended from Parliament for allegedly defaming India on foreign soil.
BJP plotted Gandhi's disqualification to shut him: Congress
The Congress also alleged that the BJP plotted Gandhi's conviction to remove him from Parliament to silence his demands for an investigation into the Adani Group. In his Lok Sabha address last month, Gandhi questioned the relationship between industrialist Gautam Adani and PM Modi, alleging that the Modi government made undue favors to Adani at the expense of public money.
Modis in all communities: Gandhi
"Modis are 13 crores (in number), and all these people will not have a right to file the complaint because it is not an identifiable, definite, determinate group or collection of persons," he said in the plea. "There is no particular group of Modis which is referred to in the impugned defamatory statement as distinguished from the rest of the Modis," he added.
Law experts say defamation law for individuals, not generic class
Meanwhile, legal experts say the ruling was unprecedented because the impugned statement referred to a broad category of individuals, which is not actionable under defamation law. The maintainability of such cases depends on the complainant establishing a direct reference to themselves. In this right, the complaint lodged by MLA Purnesh Modi doesn't hold as the statement references PM Modi, Lalit Modi, and Nirav Modi.
Verdict based on assumptions: Gandhi
Gandhi's appeal further stated that the conviction and sentence were passed based on "assumptions, presumptions, conjectures, surmises, and suppositions," which are not acceptable in criminal law. It stated that an Opposition leader cannot always weigh their words on a golden scale.
