The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad excessive court docket on Friday refused to put aside a classes court docket order summoning Congress chief Rahul Gandhi for allegedly making derogatory remarks towards Vinayak Damodar Savarkar throughout his Bharat Jodo Yatra rally in 2022.
Justice Subhash Vidyarthi refused to entertain Gandhi’s plea after observing that he has the choice to method the classes choose with a plea beneath Part 397 (energy to revise trial court docket’s order) of the Code of Prison Process. (For Illustration)
Justice Subhash Vidyarthi refused to entertain Gandhi’s plea after observing that he has the choice to method the classes choose with a plea beneath Part 397 (energy to revise trial court docket’s order) of the Code of Prison Process. Rahul Gandhi had challenged the summons order issued by a Lucknow classes court docket in December final yr.
“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 docket mentioned 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 docket had noticed that Rahul Gandhi had mentioned that Savarkar was a British servant who obtained a pension. These remarks had unfold hatred and ill-will in society, the trial court docket had noticed.
Due to this fact, the trial court docket discovered a prima facie case towards Rahul Gandhi and directed him to look earlier than it. Subsequently, he approached the excessive court docket difficult the summoning order.
The Congress chief is dealing with expenses beneath Sections 153A (selling enmity) and 505 (public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) after advocate Nripendra Pandey filed a grievance towards him.
Pandey had initially approached a further chief judicial Justice of the Peace with an utility to register a primary info report towards 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 additional acknowledged that Savarkar obtained pension from the British.
The advocate had submitted that these remarks had been made with the intent of inciting hatred in society. In June 2023, a further chief judicial Justice of the Peace court docket had dismissed Pandey’s grievance prompting him to problem the identical earlier than the classes court docket.
The classes court docket then allowed the plea and remanded the matter again to the Justice of the Peace court docket which then issued summons to Rahul Gandhi.