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‘26 hours have passed’: Cong on restoration of Rahul Gandhi's Lok Sabha membership
A three-judge top court bench stayed Gandhi's qualification in a 2019 defamation case filed by BJP ML Purnesh Modi.
Congress MP Jairam Ramesh on Saturday demanded the immediate restoration of Rahul Gandhi's status as Lok Sabha MP, this day after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in the 2019 Modi surname defamation case.
"26 hours after @RahulGandhi was "convicted" by the Sessions Court in Surat, the notification of his disqualification as MP was issued. 26 hours have passed since the Supreme Court stayed his wholly unjustified conviction. Why hasn’t his position as MP been restored yet? Is the Prime Minister afraid of his participation in the No Confidence Motion?", Ramesh posted on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
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Earlier in the day, Congress leader of Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said he called up Speaker Om Birla last night, seeking urgent restoration of Gandhi's membership. The Congress MP claimed he called Speaker once again on Saturday morning, who told him to speak to secretary general and submit the documents to the office.
“I called up the Secretary-General who said that his office is closed today and told me to submit the letter to the Speaker...I sent the letter by post. They signed the letter but did not stamp it. The House should function and Rahul Gandhi comes back there. When he has been granted relief by the Court, we are requesting the Speaker to see that he faces no issue in coming back”, Chowdhury told news agency ANI.
On Friday, a three-judge top court bench stayed Gandhi's qualification in a 2019 defamation case filed by BJP ML Purnesh Modi over the ex-Congress chief's "How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?" during a poll rally in Karnataka.
“No doubt the utterances were not in good taste and a person in public life is expected to exercise caution while making public speeches. Taking into consideration these and that no reason has been given by the trial judge for imposing the maximum sentence, the order of conviction needs to be stayed pending final adjudication”, the top court bench said.
