SC fines lawyer ₹1 lakh for plea against restoring Rahul Gandhi’s LS membership

The bench termed the petition as “frivolous”, adding such petitions did not only waste the precious time of the court but also that of the entire Supreme Court registry

The Supreme Court on Friday imposed a penalty of ₹1 lakh on a Lucknow-based advocate, who had sought quashing of the August 7 notification that restored the Lok Sabha membership of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in August last year. Gandhi’s membership was revived following the apex court order staying his conviction in a 2019 criminal defamation case relating to ‘Modi’ surname.

Gandhi was elected as an MP from Kerala’s Wayanad in 2019. (ANI photo)

A bench of justices Bhushan R Gavai and Sandeep Mehta termed the petition as “frivolous”, adding such petitions did not only waste the precious time of the court but also that of the entire Supreme Court registry.

“Every petition needs to go through multiple verification exercises in the court registry,” said the bench, adding exemplary cost ought to be imposed on such petition to deter litigants from misusing the avenue of public interest litigation (PIL).

In its brief order, the bench further recorded that the court had on October 20 dismissed a similar PIL by advocate-petitioner Ashok Pandey while imposing a fine of ₹1 lakh on him for challenging the restoration of Lok Sabha membership of the Nationalist Congress Party Leader Mohammed Faizal.

In the present plea, Pandey claimed that the disqualification based on conviction and sentence will continue to operate till it is set aside in appeal. He urged the top court to decide the issue as to “whether the conviction of an accused can be stayed by the court of appeal or any court and whether on the basis of stay of conviction, a person who has suffered disqualification by operation of law, will become qualified to be chosen as or for being, a member of Parliament/ State legislature.” Pandey also sought a direction to the Election Commission to notify the vacancy of the seat being held by Gandhi and holding fresh election there.

Paving the way for revival of Rahul Gandhi’s membership of Parliament that he had lost because of the two-year-jail term in the 2019 criminal defamation case, a bench led by justice Gavai had on August 4 stayed the Congress leader’s conviction on the grounds that the trial judge failed to explain why Gandhi deserved the maximum punishment under the law, and that continuation of his disqualification would deprive the people of his constituency of a proper representation in Parliament.

Gandhi was elected as an MP from Kerala’s Wayanad in 2019. After his conviction on March 23 by a Surat trial court and the subsequent declaration of his disqualification by the Lok Sabha secretariat, Gandhi remained ineligible as an MP for 131 days before the top court’s propitious order.

Calling the ramifications of the punishment “wide”, the top court had then pointed out that not only Gandhi’s right to continue in public life has been affected by virtue of the sentence awarded, but also that of electorates of the constituency who elected him.

In its order on the day, the bench said that while Gandhi ought to have been “more careful” in making remarks in the wake of his public standing, the Surat sessions court as well as the Gujarat high court failed to delve into the aspects of maximum punishment as well as its ramification on an elected representative.