New Delhi: The Supreme Court issued Tuesday contempt notice to Congress president Rahul Gandhi for his remarks on the Rafale judgment, which the apex court had said were ‘incorrectly attributed’ to it.
The top court said it will hear April 30 the criminal contempt petition filed by BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi against Gandhi along with the pending review petition against the December 14, 2018 verdict in the Rafale jet deal. The top court however, rejected the plea of Rahul to close the criminal contempt petition filed by Lekhi.
“On hearing senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi on behalf of Rahul Gandhi in the contempt petition we deem it fit to issue notice to the respondent (Rahul) Gandhi,” a bench headed by Chief Justcie Ranjan Gogoi said. “We also direct the registry to list the review petition along with the contempt petition next Tuesday,” the bench also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna said.
It should be stated here that Rahul, earlier Monday in an affidavit to the Supreme Court had expressed regret over his comments on the Rafale verdict. In the affidavit, Rahul had said that he had made the statements in the heat of the election campaign which have been misused by the opposition to the Congress.
