Prayagraj: The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday reserved its verdict over a special court’s order directing a magisterial court to consider the plea for an FIR against Congress MP Rahul Gandhi for a statement he made in the US.
Justice Sameer Jain, acting on Gandhi’s criminal revision, kept the special court’s order in abeyance.
Appearing for Gandhi, senior advocate Gopal Chaturvedi submitted that the application moved by the complainant did not mention the date on which Gandhi made the purported statement.
He argued that unless the entire statement was quoted in the application, it couldn’t be substantiated in which context Gandhi allegedly made those utterances.
He said both courts did not consider whether there was a prima facie case or not.
Additional advocate general Manish Goel, however, said the question was whether it would be the high court or the magistrate concerned that would examine the point of a prima facie case.
He said it was a statement made on foreign soil by the leader of the Opposition against India, and the matter required investigation.
More importantly, Goel claimed, there was an admission that he made the statement.
As of this date, there is no FIR. It is open for the magistrate to apply his mind, he added.
One Nageshwar Mishra from Varanasi sought the magisterial court to direct the police to register an FIR against Gandhi, saying during an event in September 2024, Gandhi allegedly said the environment in India was not good for Sikhs.
Mishra alleged his statement was provocative and divisive.
The magisterial court, however, rejected the plea on November 28 last year and said the speech was made in the US and therefore the issue was beyond its jurisdiction.
Mishra subsequently challenged the order before a revisional court, which on July 21 allowed it and directed the magisterial court to hear the matter afresh.
He tried to get an FIR registered against Gandhi in the Sarnath police station, Varanasi, but failed.
Gandhi moved the high court and his counsel argued that the order of the Varanasi court was wrong, illegal and without jurisdiction.
PTI
