NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the conviction of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the defamation case. However, the apex court severely criticized the Congress leader before issuing its verdict. It said that Rahul Gandhi's speech in Gujarat was not good and that he should be more careful while delivering speeches.

The court stated that when an MP is disqualified, its consequences affect not only the MP but also the voters in the constituency. According to the Supreme Court, if the trial judge had reduced Rahul Gandhi's sentence by one day instead of imposing the maximum sentence, it would not have affected the disqualification. The court said that it is staying Rahul Gandhi's conviction as the trial court did not give any reason for awarding maximum punishment to Rahul Gandhi.

The bench comprising Justices BR Gavai, PS Narasimha, and Sanjay Kumar said that the trial court should explain why Rahul was given the maximum punishment in the defamation case. The hearing in the case lasted for more than one and a half hours.

Advocate Manu Abhishek Singhvi, who appeared for Rahul Gandhi, said that Rahul had not insulted the Modi community and that the complainant was a BJP member. “In a democracy we have dissent, in democracy we have disagreement. What we call ‘shaleen bhasha’. Gandhi is not a hardened criminal. There are many cases filed by BJP workers, but there was never any conviction. Gandhi has already missed two sessions of the Parliament,” he added.

On July 15, Rahul Gandhi had approached the Supreme Court challenging the Gujarat high court’s order where a bench of Justice Hemant Prachchhak had observed that granting a stay on his conviction would be an exception, and not a rule. Gandhi was disqualified as an MP in March, after a Surat court convicted him and sentenced him to two years in prison for his "How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname" remark made during an election rally in Karnataka in April 2019.