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Rahul Gandhi defamation case closed, but SC cautions him to be careful in future

Court
Rahul Gandhi had in May said that he regretted wrongfully attributing the remark to the SC, but stood by the political slogan.
The Supreme Court dismissed a criminal contempt case filed against former Congress President and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi by BJP lawmaker Meenakshi Lekhi. Rahul Gandhi was accused of saying “Chowkidar Chor Hai” in reference to the Prime Minister and attributing it wrongly to the Supreme Court. The remark was made by the Congress leader on April 10 when the court dismissed the Centre’s objections to a review petition with regard to the Rafale fighter jet deal.
A three-judge bench comprising of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph closed the contempt petition with a word of caution, stating that Rahul Gandhi should be more careful in the future. “We would not like to continue with the proceedings and the contemner should exercise more caution in the future,” said the bench. The apex court obseved that the Congress leader said “chowkidar chor hain” without even reading the Rafale judgment. 
The SC had on December 14, 2018, dismissed all petitions seeking CBI to register FIRs against the Narendra Modi government for alleged irregularities in the Rafale fighter jet deal. The SC had ruled that there was no occasion to doubt the decision-making process of the Modi government. 
However, in May, former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie and advocate Prashant Bhushan filed review petitions based on internal file notings of the defence ministry reportedly objecting to the PMO interference in Rafale deal to allegedly give tax concessions to Reliance Industries. The Centre had denied this allegation and sought the court to reject the petitions seeking a review of its December 14 verdict.
The remark “Chowkidar Chor Hai” was made by the Congress leader when the SC had unanimously dismissed the Centre’s preliminary objections over admitting the documents and agreed to hear the review petition. The remark by Gandhi insinuated that the SC had called the Prime Minister, a thief.
Though the court exempted Gandhi from appearing personally to the court, his plea to reject the case was dismissed.
The Congress leader then tendered an unconditional apology for wrongfully attributing the remarks to the SC and expressed regret. He had termed his remarks as “entirely unintentional, non-wilful and inadvertent”. He had told that court that, “I am expressing regret only for attributing the slogan to Supreme Court. I stand by my political slogan ‘Chowkidar chor hai’.”
He had justified the use of the term as part of fighting a disinformation campaign by the ruling party leaders citing the December 14 verdict of the Court as giving the Modi government a “clean chit”.
Gandhi had then told the court that, “It is also clear that no court would ever(use a slogan like ‘chowkidar chor hai’ in its verdict) and hence the unfortunate references (for which I express regret) to the court order and to the political slogan in juxtaposition the same breath in the heat of political campaigning ought not to be construed as suggesting that the court had given any finding or conclusion on that issue.”
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Source: TheNewsMinute.com