Hours after Rahul Gandhi was convicted in a criminal defamation case by a Surat court and sentenced to two years in jail, advocate Vineet Jindal wrote to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla seeking disqualification of the Congress MP Rahul Gandhi. Rahul Gandhi is a member of Lok Sabha and represents the Wayanad constituency of Kerala. On 23rd March 2023, Rahul Gandhi was convicted by a court in surat in a criminal case of defamation booked against him in 2019 for his remarks against Modi’s surname in one of his speeches during the campaigning for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
@vineetJindal19 ADVOCATE & SOCIAL ACTIVIST FILED COMPLAINT WITH SPEAKER LOK SABHA SEEKING DISQUALIFICATION OF #RAHULGANDHI, M.P LOK SABHA UNDER SECTION 8 (3) OF THE REPRESENTATION OF THE PEOPLE ACT, 1951. #RahulGandhi #Congress #Surat ##VineetJindal @ANI @PTI_News @ians_india pic.twitter.com/LQBnrPvW1v
— Adv.Vineet Jindal (@vineetJindal19) March 23, 2023
In his letter to the Lok Sabha speaker, advocate Vineet Jindal wrote, “I am seeking disqualification of Mr. Rahul Gandhi, MP Lok Sabha as a court in Gujarat’s Surat city, on 23.03.2023, convicted Congress MP Rahul Gandhi in a criminal defamation case against him over his alleged Modi surname remark. Surat court after completing the trial in a Defamation complaint filed by one of the MLAs of Gujarat assembly convicted Rahul Gandhi for a 2-year sentence in jail under section 504 of IPC.”
Advocate Vineet Jindal further said in his letter, “As per Section 8 (3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951: MP/MLA convicted of any offence and sentenced to imprisonment for not less than two years shall be disqualified from the date of conviction. Section 8(3) of the Act defines any member MP/MLA convicted of any offence and sentenced to imprisonment for two or more years shall be disqualified from the date of conviction, from the definition of the above section of the act Mr. Rahul Gandhi shall be declared disqualified from the membership of the Lok Sabha from today itself. By the present complaint, I am requesting the Hon’ble speaker to issue orders to declare Mr.Rahul Gandhi as disqualified as a member of the Lok Sabha from immediate effect.”
On 23rd March 2023, Surat District Court held Congress leader and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi guilty in a criminal defamation case filed against him over his remarks insulting the Modi surname. During an election rally in 2019, Rahul Gandhi alleged that everyone with the Modi surname, including Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, and Narendra Modi, are thieves.
A case was filed against Rahul Gandhi by Gujarat BJP leader Purnesh Modi for making derogatory comments against the Modi community in Gujarat. During an election rally in the run-up to the 2019 elections, Rahul Gandhi mocked an entire community by saying, “Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, Narendra Modi… how come they all have Modi as a common surname? How come all thieves have Modi as a common surname?”
Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Surat Purnesh Modi had filed a complaint against the Congress leader for defaming the entire Modi community. Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi was booked under Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code, which deal with criminal defamation.
The court found Rahul Gandhi guilty of the same and sentenced him to 2 years in prison while giving him a month to appeal against the verdict. The court also kept the sentence suspended till he files an appeal. Following this judgement, speculations are now being made about Rahul Gandhi’s probable disqualification from membership in the lower house of the parliament. Now, advocate Vineet Jindal has written a complaint to the Lok Sabha speaker in this regard.
It is notable that as mentioned by Jindal, Rahul Gandhi could be disqualified from Lok Sabha according to section 8(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. According to this section, any MP or MLA convicted of any offence and sentenced to imprisonment for not less than two years shall be disqualified from the date of conviction. The Act had a provision under section 8(4), which had allowed convicted MPs, MLAs, and MLCs to continue in their posts, provided they appealed against their conviction/sentence in higher courts within 3 months of the date of judgment. However, this section was struck dow bythe Supreme Court in 2013.
Moreover, the UPA government at that time had tried to overturn this judgement by bringing an amendment to the law, and had also promulgated an ordinance to make it effective immediately. But Rahul Gandi had famously trashed it. He had called the amendment nonsense and had torn down a copy of the same, causing massive embarrassment for the Manmohan Singh government.
