The Jharkhand High Court recently rejected a petition filed by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to have a defamation action against him dropped. An attorney from Ranchi’s prominent Modi family had filed the defamation suit in response to Gandhi’s allegedly insulting statements towards the whole ‘Modi’ community.
After Rahul Gandhi’s speeches on March 2, 2019, in Ranchi, and on April 13, 2019, in the town of Kolar, Karnataka, the complainant, a lawyer named Pradip Modi, had filed a complaint in 2019. The Congress leader had targeted the Modi surname after the scam of Nirav Modi was exposed. In the Ranchi rally, Rahul Gandhi had said, “After all, why are all Modi thieves?” In the Karnataka rally, Rahul Gandhi reportedly said, “I have a question. Why do all thieves have Modi in their names, whether it is Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, or Narendra Modi? I don’t know how many more such Modi will come out.”
The complaint claimed that Gandhi’s comments were disparaging and defamatory toward all people with the surname or title Modi. He stated in his complaint, “This has lowered the reputation of Modi clan in public eyes and has caused immense hurt and anguish to a person having Modi surname.”
In light of this, the complainant claimed that Gandhi had defamed Modi community in accordance with section 499 of the Indian Penal Code when he made the generalization that all Modis are thieves. He was therefore deserving of the harshest possible punishment, which included an exemplary fine and jail. The case is now ongoing before the Judicial Magistrate, First Class, Ranchi court after being given cognizance under section 500 of the I.P.C.
Rahul Gandhi’s lawyer pointed the High Court to the complaint’s numerous parts in his argument that, according to Explanation-2 of Section 499 of the I.P.C., only a person who has been aggrieved may make a petition under Section 499 I.P.C.
Rahul Gandhi’s lawyer argued, “The complainant did not have any specific legal injury as Gandhi’s remarks were not directed at any individual or a readily identifiable group of people, therefore, the complaint was not maintainable.”
The complainant’s advocate, however, disagreed with the arguments and asserted that since the comment against the Modi community was uttered in Ranchi and the plaintiff was a native of Ranchi, he was the party who was hurt in the case. He also argued that all of these details—including whether the complainant could file the case—could be examined by the trial court during the hearing and that the high court should not go into them in order to declare Gandhi not to be the subject of valid action.
The bench of Justice Sanjay Kumar Dwivedi said that it was an admitted fact that the statement was made at Ranchi. The high court also held that the speech was made at Ranchi, thus, the Modi community of Ranchi was also affected.
The court said, “The Court has perused the cognizance order dated 07.06.2019 and finds that the learned court has applied his judicial mind and after disclosing the prima facie materials took the cognizance.” The court concluded that all the contentions were required to be proved in the trial and dismissed Rahul Gandhi’s plea to quash the defamation suit.
