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The RSS worker had lodged a defamation complaint against Gandhi, alleging that he had stated in a speech that the RSS was accountable for the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi
The Bombay High Court on Wednesday reserved its order in the petition filed by Indian National Congress (INC) Member of Parliament (MP) Rahul Gandhi, challenging the magistrate court's order allowing an RSS worker to annex a transcript in the defamation case.
This transcript was earlier part of Gandhi's writ petition in the high court.
A single judge bench of the high court comprising Justice PK Chavan heard both parties and reserved its order.
The RSS worker had lodged a defamation complaint against Gandhi, alleging that he had stated in a speech that the RSS was accountable for the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.
Gandhi has approached the high court against the order of the Thane court allowing the RSS worker to exhibit documents that were a part of Gandhi's petition in 2014.
Advocate Pawan Thatte, appearing for the RSS worker, contended that Gandhi was not even allowing the complainant to produce the document. He maintained that the onus should be on the complainant to prove the genuineness of the document.
Advocate Sudeep Pasbola, appearing for Gandhi, contended that the magistrate had marked the document as an 'exhibit' and not just for identification. He added that if it is added as an exhibit, it would imply that the document was proved.
In 2021, the RSS worker challenged the trial court's decision rejecting his plea to annex specific documents from Gandhi's 2014 petition.
The high court had clarified that Gandhi could not be compelled to acknowledge or refute the inclusion of such annexures.
Gandhi in his plea contended that the order and the exhibition of the entire writ petition is wholly contrary to settled principles of evidence and criminal jurisprudence.
The plea further added that producing the entire copy of the said writ petition with annexures is nothing but a veiled attempt by the RSS worker for getting the transcripts of the alleged speech admitted instead of proving the speech by its own documents.
Case title: Rahul Gandhi vs State of Maharashtra & Anr.
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