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Supreme Court Issues Contempt Notice To Rahul Gandhi Over 'Chowkidar Chor Hai' Remark

Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Lekhi, said that expressing regret was not an apology in the eyes of the law.
ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued contempt notice to Congress President Rahul Gandhi for his remarks on the Rafale judgment, which the apex court had said were “incorrectly attributed” to it.

The top court said it will hear on 30 April the criminal contempt petition filed by BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi against Gandhi along with the pending review petition against the December 14, 2018 verdict in the Rafale jet deal.

The top court rejected the plea of Gandhi to close the criminal contempt petition filed by Lekhi.

“On hearing senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi on behalf of Gandhi in the contempt petition we deem it fit to issue notice to the respondent (Rahul) Gandhi,” a bench headed by Chief Justcie Ranjan Gogoi said.

“We also direct the registry to list the review petition along with the contempt petition next Tuesday,” the bench also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna said.

Gandhi had, on Monday, expressed “regret” in the Supreme Court, saying it was made in the “heat of political campaigning”.

The Congress chief said his statement was “purely political” and was made to counter the “misinformation campaign” being led by senior BJP functionaries as well as the Government that the December 14 last year judgment gave a “clean chit” to the Modi government on the Rafale deal.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Lekhi, the contempt petitioner, submitted that Gandhi had not offered any apology for attributing the ‘Chowkidar Chor hai’ remark to the court, according to News18.

Rohatgi further said that expressing regret was not an apology in the eyes of the law and “contrition has to be expressed at first instance and unequivocally”.

(With PTI inputs)

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.