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Ashok Pandey, a Lucknow-based advocate had sought quashing of the August 7, 2023 notification that restored the Lok Sabha membership of the Congress leader
The Supreme Court today dismissed a PIL filed by Lawyer Ashok Pandey challenging the restoration of Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi's Lok Sabha membership calling it to be 'frivolous'.
Such petitions not only waste the precious time of the court but also that of the entire Registry, a bench of Justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta observed.
The bench also called for multiple verifications of petitions by the registry to avoid such situation and imposed costs of INR 1 lakh on the petitioner.
Gandhi's membership was restored after the Supreme Court had in August last year stayed his conviction in the 2019 criminal defamation case over his Modi surname remark.
Gandhi had approached the top court on July 15 after a single judge bench of Justice Hemant Prachchhak had tabled the verdict in the 'Modi' surname remark case upholding his conviction.
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.
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.
Case Title: Ashok Pandey vs. Speaker, Lok Sabha
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