The Supreme Court today closed the contempt plea filed by BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi against Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi for wrongly attributing the ‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’ slogan against Prime Minister Modi to the apex court in Rafale case.
The Supreme Court says “Mr Rahul Gandhi needs to be more careful in future” for attributing to the court his remarks. https://t.co/MjG0POUVfj
— ANI (@ANI) November 14, 2019
While dismissing the plea, the apex court said that Rahul Gandhi needs to be more careful in future for attributing remarks to the Supreme Court. In May this year, Gandhi had tendered an unconditional apology for wrongly attributing the slogan to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has also dismissed Rafale review petitions against its 14th December, 2018 judgement upholding the 36 Rafale jets’ deal.
On April 10, while campaigning at a rally, Rahul Gandhi had stated that the Supreme Court order says, “Chowkidar Chor Hai”. This was with reference to SC overruling primary objections raised by the Centre against accepting media reports produced by review petitions. The SC had decided to hear the review petitions on merits.
BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi had filed a contempt plea against the statement on which the SC had issued a notice to Rahul Gandhi. The court had stated that it has never said so. The SC had allowed the admissibility of three documents in their hearing of the review petitions on the Rafale verdict. Rahul, Congress and the supportive ecosystem had propagated the step as a big victory against the NDA government.
Rahul’s unconditional apology had come after much embarrassment to his image and his party as he was made to admit he had said it at ‘the heat of campaigning’.
The Supreme Court had also objected over the affidavit submitted by Rahul Gandhi. CJI Gogoi had stated during a hearing that Rahul admitted wrongly attributing the remark but he stood by it. Later, the SC had also raised an objection regarding Rahul Gandhi’s affidavits. The court had stated that ‘regret’ is not ‘apology’ and had ordered Rahul to submit an unconditional apology.
