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Synopsis

Justice Gita Gopi of the Gujarat High Court on Wednesday recused from hearing the appeal filed by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the 'Modi surname remark case'.

The judge asked the advocate who had mentioned the appeal before Justice Gopi's bench to approach the Acting Chief Justice of the high court to assign the case to another bench.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has filed an appeal before the Gujarat High Court against the decision of the Sessions Court in Surat rejecting his plea seeking stay on his conviction in the 2019 criminal defamation case for his "all thieves have Modi surname" remark.

Judge Robin Mogera had passed the order in Gandhi's interim application for stay on conviction on April 20, 2023. 

On March 23, 2023, the Congress leader who was then a parliamentarian from Wayanad, Kerala, was convicted by Surat District Court and sentenced to two years in jail. This conviction led to Gandhi's disqualification from his membership in Lok Sabha. 

Gandhi then filed an appeal before the Sessions Court. Also, the appeal being pending, Gandhi moved an interim application seeking stay on his conviction. Senior Advocate RS Cheema appearing for Gandhi argued that the trial in the matter was not fair and the decision of the magistrate court was strange. He alleged that the judge had made a "hotchpotch" of all the evidence on record.

However, the Sessions Court rejected the Congress leader's plea while noting in the order that "Rahul Gandhi failed to demonstrate that by not staying the conviction and denying an opportunity to contest the election, an irreversible and irrevocable damage will be caused to him".

In 2019, Gandhi in a poll rally at Kolar in Karnataka, said, “how come all thieves have Modi as the common surname”.

Thereafter, a defamation case was filed against Gandhi by Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) MLA and former Gujarat Minister Purnesh Modi, under Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code. 

Case Title: RAHUL GANDHI v PURNESH ISHWERBHAI MODI