The Bombay High Court Today (July 12th) quashed a Bhiwandi court order allowing certain additional documents as evidence in the criminal defamation case filed against Rahul Gandhi by a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker.
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MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Friday quashed a Bhiwandi court order that had permitted certain additional documents to be used as evidence in the criminal defamation case filed against Rahul Gandhi by a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker.
Justice Prithviraj K. Chavan delivered the order in response to a plea by Gandhi, who argued that the trial court had improperly allowed RSS functionary Rajesh Kunte to “belatedly” introduce certain documents.
On June 3, a Bhiwandi Magistrate Court in Thane had accepted documents submitted by Kunte, the complainant in the case against Gandhi, which included the transcript of the alleged defamatory speech that led to the defamation case.
Gandhi challenged this decision before the High Court, asserting that the Magistrate’s order violated a previous ruling by a single judge of the High Court in another petition filed by Kunte concerning the same defamation complaint.
In 2021, Justice Revati Mohite Dere had dismissed Kunte’s petition seeking the admission or denial of the alleged defamatory speech made by Gandhi.
Justice Dere reasoned that an accused person could not be compelled to admit or deny annexures to the petition.
Gandhi argued in his current petition that despite the 2021 order, the Magistrate proceeded to record the same documents, which would force him to either admit or deny them.
The case originated in 2014 when Kunte accused Gandhi of making defamatory statements during a speech that alleged the Hindu organization RSS was responsible for the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.
Kunte filed his complaint before the Bhiwandi magistrate in 2014, which led to the Magistrate taking cognizance of the complaint and summoning Gandhi to appear in court. Gandhi challenged this summons in the High Court in 2014, seeking to quash the criminal proceedings.
In his petition, Gandhi included a transcript of the allegedly defamatory speech. Although Gandhi’s petition was dismissed by the High Court, Kunte argued before the magistrate that by including a copy of his speech in the petition, Gandhi had unambiguously admitted to the speech.
The Magistrate Court rejected this application, which Kunte then challenged before the High Court.
The High Court dismissed Kunte’s petition in 2021, opining that merely because Kunte’s document was annexed to Gandhi’s petition, it would not make such a document a “public document,” thus exempting Kunte from proving it according to the law.
Despite Gandhi’s vehement opposition, the Magistrate took on record the same 2014 writ petition, including the annexures, during Kunte’s examination by the court on June 3, 2023. This prompted Gandhi to move the High Court, resulting in Friday’s decision to quash the Bhiwandi court order.
CASE TITLE:
Rahul Gandhi v State of Maharashtra and Ors.
Click Here to Read Previous Reports on Rahul Gandhi
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