The Evening Wrap: SC issues notice to complainant in Rahul Gandhi defamation case

The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to complainant Purnesh Modi and the State of Gujarat in a petition filed by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi seeking a stay of his conviction in a criminal defamation case. A Bench led by Justice BR Gavai listed the case for hearing on August 4. The case relates to Gandhi’s “Modi” surname remark in a political speech during a rally in Karnataka in 2019. A request by senior advocate A.M. Singhvi and advocate Prasanna S., appearing for Gandhi, for an “interim suspension” of the conviction was refused. Justice Gavai said that cannot be done without hearing the rival side first. “At this stage, without hearing the other side, how can we give?” Justice Gavai asked. Singhvi pressed the need for an urgent hearing of the case as 111 days have already passed since Gandhi’s disqualification from the House. He has already missed one session, and is unable to participate in the ongoing monsoon sitting of the Parliament. When senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani objected, Singhvi said “your client needs to be bothered only about the conviction part and not the disqualification part”. Singhvi said the by-elections for the Wayanad constituency may be announced any time. There was a constitutional mandate under Section 151A of the Representation of People Act 1951 to not allow the vacancy of a seat for more than six months. Jethmalani said he needed time to file written submissions on “propositions of law and questions of fact” in the case. The Bench initially scheduled the case within the next 10 days on July 31, but finally fixed the case for hearing on August 4. “We will take it up on August 4. The question we have to decide is whether the conviction deserves to be suspended or not,” Justice Gavai observed. Justice Gavai, as soon as the hearing began, informed the lawyers about his family’s history of political association with the Congress party. Justice Gavai’s father, R.S. Gavai, was an activist, parliamentarian, Governor and the founder of the Republican Party of India (Gavai). His brother, Rajendra Gavai, is a politician. “My father was associated, though not a Congress member... but closely associated.. Mr Singhvi you have been with the Congress for more than 40 years and my brother is still in politics and he is in Congress… Please take a call if you want me to hear this,” Justice Gavai addressed Jethmalani and Singhvi. Both sides told Justice Gavai to not recuse. Singhvi said it was a sign of the times that “these kinds of things should be raked up”. “I am only doing my duty. I have to disclose this so there is no problem later on. I have been on the Bench for 20 years. These things have never affected my judgment,” Justice Gavai said. In fact, on a lighter note, Justice Gavai said his father was fellow parliamentarian and good friends with the fathers of both Singhvi and Jethmalani. In his petition, Gandhi contended that the lower courts had branded his political speech critical of economic offenders and also of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, made in the course of democratic political activity, as an act of “moral turpitude”. “A political speech in the course of democratic political activity, critical of economic offenders, and also of Shri Narendra Modi, has been held to be an act of moral turpitude inviting the harshest punishment. Such a finding is gravely detrimental to democratic free speech in the midst of a political campaign. It is respectfully submitted that the same will set a disastrous precedent wiping out any form of political dialogue or debate which is remotely critical in any manner,” the petition has argued. He argued that the conviction and two-year sentence, the maximum punishment in defamation law, would result in the “inexorable exclusion of the petitioner from all political elective office for a long period of eight years”. National Commission for Women had been apprised of Manipur video incident on June 12 Before the video of the alleged incident of women being paraded naked and brutally assaulted in Manipur went viral on July 19, the National Commission for Women had been apprised of the same through an appeal by two women activists and a civil society organisation called the North American Manipur Tribal Association (NAMTA) more than a month ago on June 12. The appeal which was emailed to NCW Chairperson listed six incidents of violence and assault against women belonging to the Kuki tribe. The second one mentioned was that of the gangrape and assault on the women in B Phainom village of Kangpokpi District on May 4 which was captured in the video. The other incidents listed in the appeal are alleged harassment and abuse of students and staff from Kuki-Zomi communities in Manipur University campus, Imphal on May 3; harassment of two young women at Nightingale Nurse Institute in Imphal on May 4; the alleged rape and murder of two young women in the Konung Mamang area of Imphal on May 5; the killing of a 45-year old woman in Pheitaiching village of Kangpokpi district, and sexual assault of an 18-year-old in Wangkhei on May 15. The activists who did not give their consent to be identified had compiled the incidents based on their interviews with the victims of physical assaults and rapes. “The number of affected parties are maybe more than reported,” the appeal, a copy of which is available withThe Hindu, said. The June 12 appeal underlined the serious gravity of “gender-based violence, appalling levels of women’s rights violations, and continued threats to the physical safety and psychological well-being of Kuki-Zomi women” and requested the commission to “take suo motu cognizance of the matter and if possible, constitute an Inquiry Committee”. After the video created mass uproar across the country, the NCW chief Rekha Sharma had on July 20 tweeted that the commission has taken suo motu cognizance of the said incident. When contacted, Sharma confirmed to The Hindu that the letter had indeed been received and as a follow up the NCW had written to the Manipur Chief Secretary on June 19 to take action. “Till now, we have written thrice to the Manipur government on May 23, May 29 and on June 19,” Sharma said. In the letter dated June 19, along with which the NCW chief said the appeal has been forwarded, Manipur Chief Secretary Vineet Joshi was asked to ensure mechanism for quick response to “incidents of violence and harassment of women” in the violence ridden State. “Keeping in view the urgency and significance of the matter, I am forwarding herewith the representation requesting the state government for immediate support to the affected women and take appropriate action in this regard,” the letter, a copy of which is with The Hindu, said. The Manipur Police on July 20 arrested four accused after the incident of the brutal assault of the women in Kangpokpi surfaced. More than 115 people have been killed and 40,000 displaced from their homes due to ethnic violence in the State that began on May 3. Tensions arose in the State after the majority Meitei community demanded Scheduled Tribe status and hill tribes opposed this demand. Listen to today’s episode of the In Focus podcast Why did the US take a U-turn on cluster munitions and offer them to Ukraine? | In Focus podcast The Biden administration has taken a decision to provide Ukraine with cluster munitions as part of military aid for its ongoing war with Russia. This has evoked concern among human rights watchdogs, as cluster munitions are known to be a deadly cause of civilian casualties. More than 120 countries have signed a treaty that bans the production, use, stockpiling or transfer of cluster munitions. As it turns out, neither the US, nor Ukraine nor Russia are signatories of this convention. The US, however, does have a domestic law that bans the use, production or transfer of cluster munitions with a ‘dud rate’ above 1%. The dud rate of the cluster munitions being given to Ukraine, according to the State Department, is 2.35%, which is still above the 1% cap. So, what exactly are cluster munitions? What has prompted the US to offer them to Ukraine? And can they help Ukraine gain a decisive breakthrough in the war? Varanasi court orders ASI survey of Gyanvapi mosque A court in Varanasi on July 21 directed the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to conduct a scientific survey of the Gyanvapi mosque located next to the Kashi Vishwanath temple. The ‘wazukhana’, where a structure claimed by Hindu litigants to be a ‘shivling’ exists, will not be part of the survey, following an earlier Supreme Court order related to the spot where Muslims perform ritual ablutions. A throng of people outside the court received the news with slogans of “Har Har Mahadev”. The order by the court of A K Vishvesh upheld the petition of a group of Hindus seeking a survey to determine if the Mughal-era mosque was built at the site of an earlier Hindu temple. The court fixed August 4 as the next date of hearing, according to government counsel Rajesh Mishra. The court had on July 14 reserved its order after hearing both Hindu and Muslim sides. The petition filed by the Hindu group had sought a direction to the ASI to survey the complex. The mosque management’s counsel Mohammed Tauhid Khan said it will challenge the order. “It is not acceptable and we will move to a higher court against it. This survey could cause damage to the mosque,” he said. The Muslim side filed its objection to the Hindu group’s petition in May. Vishnu Shankar Jain, the counsel for the Hindu side, had earlier argued that the Kashi Vishwanath temple-Gyanvapi mosque dispute can be resolved only by an archaeological investigation of the entire mosque complex. He had said that the situation will become clear after examining the three domes of the Gyanvapi complex, the western wall of the complex and the entire complex in a modern way. After an Allahabad High Court order, the Varanasi district court had on May 16 agreed to hear a plea for an ASI survey. Earlier, the Supreme Court had ordered the protection of the area around the claimed ‘shivling’, found when a local court ordered a video survey of the complex. The mosque management has maintained that the structure was part of the water fountain mechanism at the ‘wazukhana’, the reservoir where devotees performed ablutions before offering namaz. Guardian Ministers setting up offices in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation headquarters wrong precedent: NCP, Shiv Sena (UBT) The Opposition on July 21 said Mumbai’s guardian Ministers setting up offices in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) headquarters has set a wrong precedent and is an act of encroachment of rights of civic bodies. The issue was raised in the Maharashtra Assembly by Nationalist Congress Party’s Jayant Patil. He said the BJP’s Mangal Prabhat Lodha, who is the guardian Minister of Mumbai suburbs, has set up his office in one of the BMC cabins. “I was the guardian Minister of this city and opening an office in the civic body is encroaching on the rights of the civic body. There is no elected representative in the BMC and the government has to keep more distance from the local self government bodies to ensure their independence,” Patil said. “The BMC commissioner can be summoned to the Minister’s office, but setting up an office is a wrong precedent,” the senior NCP leader asserted. Targeting the State government, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray said the market committee and education committee chairperson’s cabins have been given to two guardian Ministers. “What was the reason behind it? Do they want to build towers there?” Thackeray said in an apparent dig at Lodha whose family is into the realty business. “This is a wrong precedent as the duties of Ministers and local self-government are different. There is no mayor or public representatives in the BMC now (due to civic body’s term ending last year). The move is to indulge in scams,” Thackeray alleged. Thackeray said if guardian Ministers are given cabins in the BMC, then all mayors in the State must get offices in Mantralaya (State Secretariat) and Mumbai MLAs must be provided offices in the civic headquarters. In Brief: Parliament adjourns over Opposition protest on Manipur Parliament proceedings continued to be drowned in protests related to Manipur violence, on day two of the Monsoon session. Both Houses barely conducted any proceedings. The Lok Sabha was first adjourned till 12 pm and then for the rest of the day shortly afterwards, following an uproar over the violence issue. A similar scene unfolded in the Rajya Sabha when members raised points of order pertaining to the Manipur issue, and the Upper House was adjourned first till 2.30 p.m., and then for the rest of the day. Legendary American singer Tony Bennett dies at age 96 Tony Bennett, the smooth American singer who had an enduring hit with ‘I Left My Heart in San Francisco’ and remained perpetually cool enough to win over younger generations of fans well into the 21st century, has died at the age of 96, the Associated Press reported Friday. No less than Frank Sinatra called the former singing waiter “the best singer in the business” after he became a star in the 1950s. Bennett went on to win 20 Grammy awards, including a lifetime achievement award. The older he grew, the more diverse his collaborators became. Bennett was in his late 80s when he recorded a 2014 album of duets with the outre Lady Gaga and went on a world tour with her in 2015. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 21 July 2023 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( Supreme Court issues notice in Rahul Gandhi defamation case, does not entertain request for ‘interim suspension’ of conviction The [Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to complainant Purnesh Modi and the State of Gujarat in a petition filed by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi]( seeking a stay of his conviction in a criminal defamation case. A Bench led by Justice BR Gavai listed the case for hearing on August 4. The case relates to Gandhi’s “Modi” surname remark in a political speech during a rally in Karnataka in 2019. A request by senior advocate A.M. Singhvi and advocate Prasanna S., appearing for Gandhi, for an “interim suspension” of the conviction was refused. Justice Gavai said that cannot be done without hearing the rival side first. “At this stage, without hearing the other side, how can we give?” Justice Gavai asked. Singhvi pressed the need for an urgent hearing of the case as 111 days have already passed since Gandhi’s disqualification from the House. He has already missed one session, and is unable to participate in the ongoing monsoon sitting of the Parliament. When senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani objected, Singhvi said “your client needs to be bothered only about the conviction part and not the disqualification part”. Singhvi said the by-elections for the Wayanad constituency may be announced any time. There was a constitutional mandate under Section 151A of the Representation of People Act 1951 to not allow the vacancy of a seat for more than six months. Jethmalani said he needed time to file written submissions on “propositions of law and questions of fact” in the case. The Bench initially scheduled the case within the next 10 days on July 31, but finally fixed the case for hearing on August 4. “We will take it up on August 4. The question we have to decide is whether the conviction deserves to be suspended or not,” Justice Gavai observed. Justice Gavai, as soon as the hearing began, informed the lawyers about his family’s history of political association with the Congress party. Justice Gavai’s father, R.S. Gavai, was an activist, parliamentarian, Governor and the founder of the Republican Party of India (Gavai). His brother, Rajendra Gavai, is a politician. “My father was associated, though not a Congress member... but closely associated.. Mr Singhvi you have been with the Congress for more than 40 years and my brother is still in politics and he is in Congress… Please take a call if you want me to hear this,” Justice Gavai addressed Jethmalani and Singhvi. Both sides told Justice Gavai to not recuse. Singhvi said it was a sign of the times that “these kinds of things should be raked up”. “I am only doing my duty. I have to disclose this so there is no problem later on. I have been on the Bench for 20 years. These things have never affected my judgment,” Justice Gavai said. In fact, on a lighter note, Justice Gavai said his father was fellow parliamentarian and good friends with the fathers of both Singhvi and Jethmalani. In his petition, Gandhi contended that the lower courts had branded his political speech critical of economic offenders and also of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, made in the course of democratic political activity, as an act of “moral turpitude”. “A political speech in the course of democratic political activity, critical of economic offenders, and also of Shri Narendra Modi, has been held to be an act of moral turpitude inviting the harshest punishment. Such a finding is gravely detrimental to democratic free speech in the midst of a political campaign. It is respectfully submitted that the same will set a disastrous precedent wiping out any form of political dialogue or debate which is remotely critical in any manner,” the petition has argued. He argued that the conviction and two-year sentence, the maximum punishment in defamation law, would result in the “inexorable exclusion of the petitioner from all political elective office for a long period of eight years”. National Commission for Women had been apprised of Manipur video incident on June 12 Before the video of the alleged incident of women being paraded naked and brutally assaulted in Manipur went viral on July 19, [the National Commission for Women had been apprised of the same through an appeal by two women activists and a civil society organisation]( called the North American Manipur Tribal Association (NAMTA) more than a month ago on June 12. The appeal which was emailed to NCW Chairperson listed six incidents of violence and assault against women belonging to the Kuki tribe. The second one mentioned was that of the gangrape and assault on the women in B Phainom village of Kangpokpi District on May 4 which was captured in the video. The other incidents listed in the appeal are alleged harassment and abuse of students and staff from Kuki-Zomi communities in Manipur University campus, Imphal on May 3; harassment of two young women at Nightingale Nurse Institute in Imphal on May 4; the alleged rape and murder of two young women in the Konung Mamang area of Imphal on May 5; the killing of a 45-year old woman in Pheitaiching village of Kangpokpi district, and sexual assault of an 18-year-old in Wangkhei on May 15. The activists who did not give their consent to be identified had compiled the incidents based on their interviews with the victims of physical assaults and rapes. “The number of affected parties are maybe more than reported,” the appeal, a copy of which is available withThe Hindu, said. The June 12 appeal underlined the serious gravity of “gender-based violence, appalling levels of women’s rights violations, and continued threats to the physical safety and psychological well-being of Kuki-Zomi women” and requested the commission to “take suo motu cognizance of the matter and if possible, constitute an Inquiry Committee”. After the video created mass uproar across the country, the NCW chief Rekha Sharma had on July 20 tweeted that the commission has taken suo motu cognizance of the said incident. When contacted, Sharma confirmed to The Hindu that the letter had indeed been received and as a follow up the NCW had written to the Manipur Chief Secretary on June 19 to take action. “Till now, we have written thrice to the Manipur government on May 23, May 29 and on June 19,” Sharma said. In the letter dated June 19, along with which the NCW chief said the appeal has been forwarded, Manipur Chief Secretary Vineet Joshi was asked to ensure mechanism for quick response to “incidents of violence and harassment of women” in the violence ridden State. “Keeping in view the urgency and significance of the matter, I am forwarding herewith the representation requesting the state government for immediate support to the affected women and take appropriate action in this regard,” the letter, a copy of which is with The Hindu, said. The Manipur Police on July 20 arrested four accused after the incident of the brutal assault of the women in Kangpokpi surfaced. More than 115 people have been killed and 40,000 displaced from their homes due to ethnic violence in the State that began on May 3. Tensions arose in the State after the majority Meitei community demanded Scheduled Tribe status and hill tribes opposed this demand. Listen to today’s episode of the In Focus podcast Why did the US take a U-turn on cluster munitions and offer them to Ukraine? | In Focus podcast The [Biden administration has taken a decision to provide Ukraine with cluster munitions]( as part of military aid for its ongoing war with Russia. This has evoked concern among human rights watchdogs, as cluster munitions are known to be a deadly cause of civilian casualties. More than 120 countries have signed a treaty that bans the production, use, stockpiling or transfer of cluster munitions. As it turns out, neither the US, nor Ukraine nor Russia are signatories of this convention. The US, however, does have a domestic law that bans the use, production or transfer of cluster munitions with a ‘dud rate’ above 1%. The dud rate of the cluster munitions being given to Ukraine, according to the State Department, is 2.35%, which is still above the 1% cap. So, what exactly are cluster munitions? What has prompted the US to offer them to Ukraine? And can they help Ukraine gain a decisive breakthrough in the war? Varanasi court orders ASI survey of Gyanvapi mosque [A court in Varanasi on July 21 directed the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to conduct a scientific survey of the Gyanvapi mosque]( located next to the Kashi Vishwanath temple. The ‘wazukhana’, where a structure claimed by Hindu litigants to be a ‘shivling’ exists, will not be part of the survey, following an earlier Supreme Court order related to the spot where Muslims perform ritual ablutions. A throng of people outside the court received the news with slogans of “Har Har Mahadev”. The order by the court of A K Vishvesh upheld the petition of a group of Hindus seeking a survey to determine if the Mughal-era mosque was built at the site of an earlier Hindu temple. The court fixed August 4 as the next date of hearing, according to government counsel Rajesh Mishra. The court had on July 14 reserved its order after hearing both Hindu and Muslim sides. The petition filed by the Hindu group had sought a direction to the ASI to survey the complex. The mosque management’s counsel Mohammed Tauhid Khan said it will challenge the order. “It is not acceptable and we will move to a higher court against it. This survey could cause damage to the mosque,” he said. The Muslim side filed its objection to the Hindu group’s petition in May. Vishnu Shankar Jain, the counsel for the Hindu side, had earlier argued that the Kashi Vishwanath temple-Gyanvapi mosque dispute can be resolved only by an archaeological investigation of the entire mosque complex. He had said that the situation will become clear after examining the three domes of the Gyanvapi complex, the western wall of the complex and the entire complex in a modern way. After an Allahabad High Court order, the Varanasi district court had on May 16 agreed to hear a plea for an ASI survey. Earlier, the Supreme Court had ordered the protection of the area around the claimed ‘shivling’, found when a local court ordered a video survey of the complex. The mosque management has maintained that the structure was part of the water fountain mechanism at the ‘wazukhana’, the reservoir where devotees performed ablutions before offering namaz. Guardian Ministers setting up offices in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation headquarters wrong precedent: NCP, Shiv Sena (UBT) [The Opposition on July 21 said Mumbai’s guardian Ministers setting up offices in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) headquarters has set a wrong precedent]( and is an act of encroachment of rights of civic bodies. The issue was raised in the Maharashtra Assembly by Nationalist Congress Party’s Jayant Patil. He said the BJP’s Mangal Prabhat Lodha, who is the guardian Minister of Mumbai suburbs, has set up his office in one of the BMC cabins. “I was the guardian Minister of this city and opening an office in the civic body is encroaching on the rights of the civic body. There is no elected representative in the BMC and the government has to keep more distance from the local self government bodies to ensure their independence,” Patil said. “The BMC commissioner can be summoned to the Minister’s office, but setting up an office is a wrong precedent,” the senior NCP leader asserted. Targeting the State government, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray said the market committee and education committee chairperson’s cabins have been given to two guardian Ministers. “What was the reason behind it? Do they want to build towers there?” Thackeray said in an apparent dig at Lodha whose family is into the realty business. “This is a wrong precedent as the duties of Ministers and local self-government are different. There is no mayor or public representatives in the BMC now (due to civic body’s term ending last year). The move is to indulge in scams,” Thackeray alleged. Thackeray said if guardian Ministers are given cabins in the BMC, then all mayors in the State must get offices in Mantralaya (State Secretariat) and Mumbai MLAs must be provided offices in the civic headquarters. In Brief: Parliament adjourns over Opposition protest on Manipur [Parliament proceedings continued to be drowned in protests]( related to Manipur violence, on day two of the Monsoon session. Both Houses barely conducted any proceedings. The Lok Sabha was first adjourned till 12 pm and then for the rest of the day shortly afterwards, following an uproar over the violence issue. A similar scene unfolded in the Rajya Sabha when members raised points of order pertaining to the Manipur issue, and the Upper House was adjourned first till 2.30 p.m., and then for the rest of the day. Legendary American singer Tony Bennett dies at age 96 [Tony Bennett, the smooth American singer who had an enduring hit with ‘I Left My Heart in San Francisco’ and remained perpetually cool enough to win over younger generations of fans well into the 21st century, has died at the age of 96]( the Associated Press reported Friday. No less than Frank Sinatra called the former singing waiter “the best singer in the business” after he became a star in the 1950s. Bennett went on to win 20 Grammy awards, including a lifetime achievement award. The older he grew, the more diverse his collaborators became. Bennett was in his late 80s when he recorded a 2014 album of duets with the outre Lady Gaga and went on a world tour with her in 2015. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [Sign up for free]( Today’s Top Picks [[‘INDIA’ placards appear in Lok Sabha for first time, Opposition alliance to stage joint dharna on July 24] ‘INDIA’ placards appear in Lok Sabha for first time, Opposition alliance to stage joint dharna on July 24]( [[Did pirated content help build ChatGPT, and other AI chatbots?] Did pirated content help build ChatGPT, and other AI chatbots?]( [[Talks on repatriating Ukrainian children from Russia under way since at least April: source] Talks on repatriating Ukrainian children from Russia under way since at least April: source]( [[North Korea threatens nuclear response after U.S. sub deployment] North Korea threatens nuclear response after U.S. sub deployment]( Copyright @ 2023, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. If you are facing any trouble in viewing this newsletter, please [try here]( Manage your newsletter subscription preferences [here]( If you do not wish to receive such emails [go here](