Patna High Court stays lower court's order asking Rahul Gandhi to appear in ‘Modi surname’ case

The Patna High Court on April 24 granted relief to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi by staying the lower court's order till May 15 in the 'Modi surname' defamation case.

The development comes after Rahul Gandhi had approached Patna High Court over the lower court's order asking him to appear on April 12 to present his case following a petition filed against him by the former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister in 2019 for allegedly making objectionable remarks on 'Modi surname'.

On April 22, the Congress leader had approached Patna High Court seeking the quashing of the summons issued by the lower court in the defamation case filed against by Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP).

''The lower court proceedings have stayed after we had filed a quashing petition. When a matter is already under trial in Surat court, then there cannot be another trial in a different court in the same matter. The next hearing is on May 15,'' ANI quoted Rahul Gandhi's counsel Advocate Virendra Rahore as saying.

On the other hand, Sushil Modi's counsel Advocate SD Sanjay said that the ''court has asked him to keep the argument on the matter''.

It is worth mentioning that the Surat Court has already convicted Rahul Gandhi over his remarks and following the verdict, he has also been disqualified as a Lok Sabha MP.

Recently, he also vacated his official Tughlaq Lane bungalow on April 22.

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