True Indian wouldn't say such a thing: Supreme Court reprimands Rahul Gandhi, stays proceedings in trial court over remarks on Army

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday rapped senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his alleged defamatory statement against Indian Army during his 'Bharat Jodo' Yatra, saying "if you are true Indian, you should not have said those things".

"How could he say that 2000 km of land were occupied by Chinese," a bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Augustine George Masih asked him, while hearing his plea against the Allahabad High Court's order declining to quash a summons issued to him by a Lucknow court in a defamation case.

Senior advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for Rahul Gandhi, contended that if he cannot say those things, he can't be the Leader of Opposition.

"Say it in Parliament, why do you have to say in social media," the bench asked him.

The court pointed out he does have a right under Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution but he was also the Leader of Opposition and should not have said those things when there was a conflict on the border.

"How do you (Gandhi) get to know when 2000 sq km was occupied by China? What is the credible material? A true Indian will not say this. When there is a conflict across border. Can you say all this? Why can't you ask the question in the Parliament," the bench told the counsel.

The bench, however, stayed further proceedings in the defamation case and issued notice to the complainant. It fixed the matter for consideration after three weeks.

Singhvi raised the contention that the High Court stated that the complainant was not a person aggrieved but a person defamed, which was a novel concept but not a correct one. He said one can't be harassed like this by filing defamation cases.

Senior advocate Gaurav Bhatia, appearing for the complainant, contended that this was not a case of stay as the statement of the complainant has already been recorded.

In May this year, the Allahabad High Court had rejected Gandhi's plea challenging the issuance of summoning order passed by an MP MLA court in Lucknow against him.

The defamation complaint was filed by Uday Shankar Srivastava, the former Border Roads Organisation (BRO) Director against the alleged derogatory remarks made by Gandhi on December 16, 2022, during his Bharat Jodo Yatra.