2014 RSS defamation case: Bombay HC allows Rahul Gandhi’s plea against magistrate’s order permitting fresh documents

A single-judge bench of Justice Prithviraj K Chavan on June 26 concluded the hearing and reserved its order on Rahul Gandhi’s plea, which the court pronounced on Friday.

Rahul Gandhi had claimed that the issue had been covered by the September 2021 order of another bench of the high court that dismissed the plea by RSS functionary Rajesh Kunte seeking that the transcript of Rahul Gandhi’s 2014 speech in which he allegedly blamed the RSS for Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination, be admitted as evidence in a defamation case against him.

If the accused is compelled to deny or admit a document, it would be “contrary to constitutional mandate”, Justice Revati Mohite-Dere had then observed.

In his present plea filed in 2023, Rahul Gandhi had argued through advocates Sudeep Pasbola and Kushal Mor that despite the said order, the magistrate court had allowed Kunte to show the same documents during the proceedings and the same could not be permitted.

Addressing an election rally on March 6, 2014, in Thane district, Rahul Gandhi, who was the then Congress vice-president, had purportedly alleged that the RSS was behind the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. Kunte alleged that Rahul Gandhi tarnished the reputation of the RSS.

Kunte claimed that by attaching a copy of his speech in his 2014 plea against the criminal proceedings, Rahul Gandhi had “unambiguously owned up to the speech”.

In March 2015, the Bombay HC dismissed Rahul Gandhi’s plea seeking to quash the case, prompting him to approach the Supreme Court with a special leave petition to challenge the HC order. He later withdrew the plea in SC, expressed his willingness to face trial and said he would not apologise.

Thereafter, the Bhiwandi court in June 2018 framed charges against Rahul Gandhi, while he pleaded not guilty and the case was set for trial. The magistrate, however, had rejected Kunte’s plea seeking to substantiate the transcript of the speech “as evidence”, prompting him to move the HC.

In September 2021, the HC rejected Kunte’s plea when Justice Mohite-Dere noted that the transcript cannot be said to be a “public document”.

The bench, while upholding the magistrate’s order, observed that an accused has the right to “remain silent” under Article 20 (3) of the Constitution and the same is “sacrosanct” in a criminal trial.

On June 3, 2023, the magistrate took on record certain additional documents from Kunte, which Rahul Gandhi opposed.

Rahul Gandhi, in his plea in the HC, also added that the documents concerned were not part of the complaint and were now being produced after a lapse of over nine years. Advocate Tapan Thatte for Kunte argued that the magistrate’s decision was justified and sought the dismissal of Rahul Gandhi’s plea.