New Delhi, Apr 15:
The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a notice to Congress president Rahul Gandhi over his remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Rafale case verdict . The apex court said it will consider the petition filed by BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi seeking contempt action against Rahul Gandhi for attributing some observations to the apex court which was not in the Rafale judgement. “We make it clear that views, observations, findings attributed to this court in the alleged speeches, remarks made by Gandhi to media/public have been incorrectly attributed to this court. We also make it clear that this court had no occasion to make such observation in as much as it was deciding legal admissibility of certain documents which were objected by the attorney general,” a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said. The bench also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna said, “Having clarified the matter we deem it appropriate to seek explanation of Gandhi.” The bench further said the explanation by Gandhi has to be filed on or before next Monday and the matter will be heard on April 23 (next Tuesday). The contempt petition, filed by senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, had accused Rahul of misquoting the SC’s order when the Congress leader said the apex court had accepted that ‘chowkidar’ (a reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi), is a “chor’ (thief). Talking to ANI, Lekhi said, “Rahul Gandhi has misquoted the Supreme Court’s order on the Rafale deal…I am sure the court must have been watching the media where Rahul Gandhi made false claims about the court’s order.” Hitting out at Congress, she said, “How can the Gandhi family talk about corruption when three of the four members of the family are out on bail.” “Rahul Gandhi has misquoted the Supreme Court order and he made the remarks to influence the voters during the Lok Sabha elections,” Lekhi added. Earlier, Rahul while speaking to the media in Amethi had said, “The Supreme Court has made it clear that “chowkidar” allowed “theft and that it had accepted that some sort of corruption had taken place in the Rafale deal”.
