Rahul Gandhi wants to close the Rafale contempt plea

Guwahati: Congress President Rahul Gandhi asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the contempt petition filed against him by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi insisting that it was the BJP lawmaker who was trying to drag the court into a political controversy for personal gains and political mileage.

Gandhi also said that the top court should also make BJP spokesperson Lekhi to pay up for abusing the judicial process by filing the contempt petition against him for his campaign remarks.

The Congress President has filed an affidavit last week to explain his first reaction to the April 10 court ruling on use of leaked defence ministry documents for the Rafale review petition to which Gandhi had remarked saying that the court had said "Chowkidar Chor Hai" repeating a slogan that Gandhi and the Congress have used to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Rahul Gandhi has told the Supreme Court that his remarks were not meant to obstruct the administration of justice or scandalize the court in any manner. Gandhi also apologized for ascribing comments to the court and said that this happened in the heat of campaigning.

However, the fresh affidavit is a response to the apex court notice issued after Gandhi's lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi pointed that the judges had not issued a notice to his client but only sought an explanation to which Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi had issued a notice to cure that defect right away.

The court, on Tuesday, will take up Rahul Gandhi's affidavit in response to the contempt notice but he need not have to be present in the court when the three-judge bench comprising of CJI Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna will hear the case and the judges had exempted Gandhi from personal appearance.

However, in his earlier explanation, Gandhi said that if he had misinterpreted the court's order on the review petition, then many ministers of the government who passed off the order in the original case given on December 14, 2018 as a clean chit to the deal have also misinterpreted the court's order.

Singhvi while recalling that the court had only sought Rahul Gandhi's explanation and not issued a formal notice at the last hearing said that the top court must not allow this political flogging to go on.

The top court had tagged the contempt petition along with the main review petition and decided to hear the case tomorrow.

Also Read: NATIONAL NEWS