The Gujarat High Court Tuesday refused to pass any interim order in favour of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in connection with a defamation case and said that it will pronounce the final verdict in the matter after the Court reopens post the summer vacation of the Court.
Justice Hemant Prachchhak was hearing a plea filed by Rahul Gandhi seeking stay on his conviction by a Magistrate court in a criminal defamation case against him for his remark “All thieves have Modi surname.”
May 5 is the last working day for the High Court and it is slated to reopen on June 5, according to Bar and Bench.
“I will pass the order during the vacations and pronounce it post vacation,” Justice Prachchhak said.
A sessions court in Surat had, on April 20, dismissed key Congress leader’s plea seeking suspension of his conviction by the Magistrate court.
Gandhi was convicted by a Magistrate court in Surat on March 23 for his remark “all thieves have Modi surname” which he had made at an election rally in Karnataka’s Kolar in 2019.
Gandhi had, in his speech linked Prime Minister Narendra Modi with fugitives like Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi.
He had said: “Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, Narendra Modi. How come all the thieves have ‘Modi’ as a common surname?”
