The Allahabad High Court on Friday disposed of a petition filed by Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, challenging a Lucknow court order summoning him as an accused in the Vinayak Damodar Savarkar defamation case.
The single-judge Bench of Justice Subhash Vidyarthi orally ordered Gandhi to approach the Sessions court under Section 397 CrPC (Section 438 BNSS) for relief and disposed of the petition.
In December 2024, Additional Civil Judge (Senior Division)/ACJM, Lucknow, Alok Verma, had summoned Gandhi as an accused in the complaint case filed by Advocate Pandey.
The ACJM observed that the Congress leader had spread hatred and ill will in the society through his press conference, wherein he allegedly said that VD Savarkar was a servant of the British and that he took a pension from the British.
The distribution of previously printed pamphlets and leaflets at the press conference demonstrated that Gandhi attempted to weaken and insult the basic characteristics of the nation by spreading hatred and enmity in the society, noted the court.
The petition filed by Advocate Pandey contended that Kantiveer Damodar, the great leader of the nationalist ideology, was a fearless freedom fighter in the history of independence, who endured the inhuman atrocities of the British to free Mother India from their slavery. Rahul Gandhi insulted Savarkar by using indecent words and making hateful utterances, thus showing an inferiority complex towards Savarkar.
The petition filed by Gandhi also challenged an order of the Sessions Court that allowed a revision plea filed by Advocate Nripendra Pandey, against the dismissal of his complaint in June 2023.
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