The Rahul Gandhi defamation case, which generated much brouhaha with comments from the Supreme Court of India, finally reached a (plausible) closure yesterday..This new development is pursuant to Gandhi’s plea that he never actually denounced the RSS, but merely pointed out the act of some RSS members, and that his words were twisted by the media..The matter was heard by a bench of Dipak Misra and Rohinton Nariman, JJ..Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal appeared for Rahul Gandhi while Senior Advocate UR Lalit appeared for RSS activist and the complainant Rajesh Kunte..While the case initially revolved around the issue of whether the police had any role to play in a suit for criminal defamation, the discussion gravitated towards a point which proved to be the grounds for a non-adversarial solution..In a criminal writ before the Bombay High Court, Gandhi had categorically stated that he did not mean to denounce the RSS as a whole, but was only referring to an act committed by certain members of the organisation..UR Lalit, initially apprehensive that the petitioner was not denying the purported statement, but simply contesting the interpretation assigned to it, saw reason at the behest of the court. Accepting that the petition may be disposed of, he requested that it be placed on record that the petitioner did not mean to refer to the respondent organisation as “the killers of Mahatma Gandhi”..The Bench found it acceptable to do so..The matter is now listed for the September 1, when Lalit after obtaining instructions from his client, is expected to agree to the disposal of the petition..Incidentally, another case concerning politician Jayalalitha and the defamation cases filed by her was up for hearing in the same Court. During the hearing of that case, the Court had had requested political parties to exercise restraint while filing defamation cases, cautioning that,.“Defamation cannot be used as a tool to throttle democracy.”.Image taken from here.
The Rahul Gandhi defamation case, which generated much brouhaha with comments from the Supreme Court of India, finally reached a (plausible) closure yesterday..This new development is pursuant to Gandhi’s plea that he never actually denounced the RSS, but merely pointed out the act of some RSS members, and that his words were twisted by the media..The matter was heard by a bench of Dipak Misra and Rohinton Nariman, JJ..Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal appeared for Rahul Gandhi while Senior Advocate UR Lalit appeared for RSS activist and the complainant Rajesh Kunte..While the case initially revolved around the issue of whether the police had any role to play in a suit for criminal defamation, the discussion gravitated towards a point which proved to be the grounds for a non-adversarial solution..In a criminal writ before the Bombay High Court, Gandhi had categorically stated that he did not mean to denounce the RSS as a whole, but was only referring to an act committed by certain members of the organisation..UR Lalit, initially apprehensive that the petitioner was not denying the purported statement, but simply contesting the interpretation assigned to it, saw reason at the behest of the court. Accepting that the petition may be disposed of, he requested that it be placed on record that the petitioner did not mean to refer to the respondent organisation as “the killers of Mahatma Gandhi”..The Bench found it acceptable to do so..The matter is now listed for the September 1, when Lalit after obtaining instructions from his client, is expected to agree to the disposal of the petition..Incidentally, another case concerning politician Jayalalitha and the defamation cases filed by her was up for hearing in the same Court. During the hearing of that case, the Court had had requested political parties to exercise restraint while filing defamation cases, cautioning that,.“Defamation cannot be used as a tool to throttle democracy.”.Image taken from here.
