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Informist, Monday, Aug. 4, 2025

 

NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court Monday pulled up Indian National Congress' Rahul Gandhi, the leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, over his remarks about Indian soldiers being thrashed by the Chinese in the 2020 Galwan Valley clash, even as it stayed a defamation proceeding against him in a Lucknow special court. The apex court questioned how Gandhi knew that 2,000 square kilometers of Indian territory was occupied by the Chinese and said that if he was a true Indian, he would not have said this.

 

"Whatever you have to say, why don't you say in Parliament? Why do you have to say this in the social media posts?" said a bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Justice AG Masih. "Tell Dr. Singhvi (lawyer for Gandhi), how do you get to know that 2,000 square kilometres of Indian territory were occupied by the Chinese? Were you there? Do you have any credible material? If you were a true Indian, you would not say all this," the bench added.

 

However, the apex court issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh Police and complainant former Border Roads Organisation Director Uday Shankar Srivastava on Gandhi's petition seeking quashing of the complainant's defamation case. It also stayed the defamation proceedings pending in the special court till the next date of hearing on Sept. 2. 

 

The complaint, which was pending in the special court in Lucknow, alleged that Gandhi made derogatory remarks in 2022 during his Bharat Jodo Yatra. The complaint said Gandhi's objectionable comments, pertaining to a clash between the Indian and Chinese armies had defamed the Indian Army.

 

Srivastava said that Gandhi repetitively stated in a very derogatory manner that the Chinese army was "thrashing" Indian soldiers in Arunachal Pradesh and that the Indian Press will not ask any question in this regard. Gandhi had also claimed in a social media post that 2,000 square kilometers of Indian territory has since been occupied by China and blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government for the "surrender", said Srivastava.

 

In February, the Lucknow special court had said that Gandhi's statement prima facie appeared to have resulted in demoralising the Indian Army and persons attached to it and their family members and issued summons to the Congress leader. Challenging this, Gandhi moved the Allahabad High Court, which rejected his plea and observed that the freedom of speech and expression does not include the freedom to make statements which were defamatory to the Indian Army.

 

In the Supreme Court, Gandhi's lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi argued that the complaint was nothing but an attempt to harass him only for raising questions, which was the duty of an opposition leader. Singhvi said as per Section 223 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, prior hearing of the accused was mandatory before taking cognisance of a criminal complaint, which had not been complied with in this case.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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