Savarkar defamation case: Allahabad HC refuses to quash summon order against Rahul Gandhi
Congress leader allegedly made derogatory remarks against Vinayak Damodar Savarkar during his Bharat Jodo Yatra rally in 2022
The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Friday refused to set aside a sessions court order summoning Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for allegedly making derogatory remarks against Vinayak Damodar Savarkar during his Bharat Jodo Yatra rally in 2022.
Justice Subhash Vidyarthi refused to entertain Gandhi’s plea after observing that he has the option to approach the sessions judge with a plea under Section 397 (power to revise trial court’s order) of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Rahul Gandhi had challenged the summons order issued by a Lucknow sessions court in December last year.
“It is in furtherance of the aforesaid order that the trial court has passed an order dated 12.12.2024 summoning the petitioner to face trial for the offences under Sections 153-A and 505 I.P.C. Therefore, the order dated 03.10.2024, passed in the revision has been acted upon and stands exhausted. The challenge made thereto at this belated stage after the order has been acted upon and stands exhausted, cannot be entertained,” the court said on Friday.
“So far as the challenge made to the order dated 12.12.2024, passed by the learned Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate is concerned, the petitioner has the statutory remedy of filing a revision under Section 397/399 Cr.P.C. against the aforesaid order”, it added.
In its order, the trial court had observed that Rahul Gandhi had said that Savarkar was a British servant who received a pension. These remarks had spread hatred and ill-will in society, the trial court had observed.
Therefore, the trial court found a prima facie case against Rahul Gandhi and directed him to appear before it. Subsequently, he approached the high court challenging the summoning order.
The Congress leader is facing charges under Sections 153A (promoting enmity) and 505 (public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) after advocate Nripendra Pandey filed a complaint against him.
Pandey had initially approached an additional chief judicial magistrate with an application to register a first information report against Rahul Gandhi for his remarks on Savarkar.
He raised grievance over remarks made by Rahul Gandhi on November 17, 2022 when he referred to Savarkar as a “collaborator” with the British and further stated that Savarkar received pension from the British.
The advocate had submitted that these remarks were made with the intent of inciting hatred in society. In June 2023, an additional chief judicial magistrate court had dismissed Pandey’s complaint prompting him to challenge the same before the sessions court.
The sessions court then allowed the plea and remanded the matter back to the magistrate court which then issued summons to Rahul Gandhi.
