Granting relief to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the Bombay High Court last week pulled up Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker Rajesh Kunte for unnecessarily delaying and protracting the trial, causing hurdles for Mr. Gandhi to seek a speedy trial in the 2014 defamation complaint lodged against him by the RSS functionary. The judgment copy was made available on July 16.
On July 12, single Bench judge Justice Prithviraj K. Chavan allowed a writ petition filed by Mr. Gandhi challenging the order of the Bhiwandi magistrate court which permitted Mr. Kunte to rely on certain additional documents in the form of transcript of Mr. Gandhi’s political speech during an election campaign as evidence in the criminal defamation case. Mr. Gandhi had contended that he cannot be compelled to admit or rely on any documents in the case.
Quashing the Bhiwandi court order, Justice Chavan said, “The petition is allowed. Impugned order and consequent exhibition of documents are quashed and set aside. The magistrate court is directed to proceed with the trial regarding the exhibit in accordance with the observations made in the order.”
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Free and fair trial
Justice Chavan said, “It can be seen that the respondent no.2 [Mr. Kunte] is keeping no stone unturned to thwart the legitimate right of the petitioner [Mr. Gandhi] to get the complaint decided on merits as expeditiously as possible in view of Article 21 of the Constitution which provides for speedy trial. It is difficult to abstruse the conduct of the respondent no.2. Free and fair trial is a sine qua non of Article 21. It is trite law that justice should not only be done but it should be seen to have been done.”
Mr. Gandhi cannot be compelled to admit or deny any document, Justice Chavan said in his order. “The right of the accused to remain silent flows from Article 20 (3) and is sacrosanct in a criminal trial. He, therefore, cannot be compelled to admit or deny any document. To keep silence in respect of a document by the accused is also an expression of his fundamental right under Article 20 (3). He cannot be compelled to be a witness against himself.”
In 2014, Mr. Kunte had filed a defamation case before Mumbai’s Bhiwandi magistrate court claiming that Mr. Gandhi had delivered a false and defamatory statement during one of the then election rallies accusing the RSS accountable for the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. The court then summoned Mr. Gandhi to appear before it with an explanation. The case was further challenged before the Bombay High Court but was dismissed by the Bench.
The documents submitted by Mr. Kunte include parts of a petition filed by Mr. Gandhi in 2014, a copy of the transcript of Mr. Gandhi’s alleged speech taken from a CD containing the purported live telecast of the programme, which was annexed as an exhibit to the petition.
Mr. Gandhi’s petition alleged that the Bhiwandi court had allowed the RSS worker to ‘belatedly’ produce certain documents in the case. His plea contended that the court order was in violation of a 2021 order passed by the Bombay High Court’s Justice Revati Mohite-Dere who then had dismissed Mr. Kunte’s petition demanding the admission or denial of Mr. Gandhi’s alleged defamatory speech. In the judgment, Justice Dere said that an accused person could not be compelled to admit or deny annexures of the said petition.
While quashing the trial court’s order, the High Court said the magistrate appears to have completely disregarded the cardinal principle of criminal jurisprudence while permitting Mr. Kunte to rely on the documents as evidence. Raising concerns over the delay as the case has been pending for a decade now, Justice Chavan directed the Bhiwandi magistrate to decide and dispose of the complaint expeditiously.
The High Court order read, “Obviously, the annexures which were attached to the petition were only for a limited purpose of seeking quashing of the case and can by no stretch of imagination be construed as an admission on behalf of the petitioner in respect of the contents therein.”
Published - July 16, 2024 08:00 pm IST
