Rahul guilty of defamation, faces disqualification as MP

Wayanad MP and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi faces an imminent threat of disqualification after a court in Surat on Thursday held him guilty of criminal defamation for a remark he made ahead of the 2019 national polls about the Modi surname.

Gandhi will have to appeal to a higher court and get a stay on the conviction to prevent the disqualification something the Congress party said it will do even as the Lok Sabha Speaker's office awaits a copy of the court order to take the next step.

The conviction also means that the ongoing Parliament session will continue to see significant disruptions. All the demands-for-grants were guillotined on Thursday and approved without any discussion in the Lok Sabha. The Finance Bill will come up for passage in the Lower House on Friday.

Gandhi was convicted under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which provides for imprisonment of up to two years, and later released on bail. The court suspended the sentence for 30 days on Gandhi's plea.

After the conviction, Gandhi, in a tweet, quoted Mahatma Gandhi. "My religion is based on truth and non-violence. Truth is my God, non-violence the means to get it," he tweeted.

Union law minister Kiren Rijiju said he will go through the details of the order before commenting. "Whatever Rahul Gandhi speaks, it always affects the Congress party and the entire nation in a negative way," he added.

Any elected representative who is sentenced for any offence for a period of two years or more faces immediate disqualification under the Representation of People Act, 1951 (RP Act). One provision of the Act that granted three months' protection from disqualification was struck down in 2013 as "ultra vires" by the Supreme Court in the Lily Thomas case.

In Gandhi's case, the Surat court that declared him guilty later suspended his sentence for 30 days on the request of his legal team, to give him an opportunity to challenge the decision.