HC quashes magistrate’s order on submission of fresh documents against Rahul Gandhi in defamation case

New Delhi: In a relief to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the Bombay High Court today set aside a magistrate’s order allowing a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activist to submit fresh and additional documents in his pending criminal defamation complaint.

RSS activist Rajesh Kunte had filed a defamation complaint in a magistrate’s court in Bhiwandi in 2014, claiming that the Congress leader had made a false and objectionable statement during a speech that the Sangh was responsible for the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. The magistrate’s court allowed Kunte to produce a copy of Rahul Gandhi’s speech in 2023.

A single bench of Justice Prithviraj Chavan allowed the Congress leader’s plea. “The petition is allowed,” the court said. The impugned order and the order to display new documents are set aside and set aside.

Justice Chavan directed the magistrate to dispose of the case at the earliest and asked both the parties to cooperate.