SC suggests transferring Gujarat judge who refused to pause Rahul Gandhi's defamation conviction

The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended transferring nine High Court judges, including Justice Hemant M Prachchhak who refused to pause the conviction of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the 2019 defamation case.

The collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, recommended transferring Justices Alpesh Y. Kogje, Kumari Gita Gopi, Hemant M Prachchhak and Samir J. Dave of the Gujarat High Court have also been proposed to be transferred to Allahabad, Madras, Patna, and Rajasthan High Courts, respectively, by the top court collegium in its meeting held on August 3.

Further, Justices Arvind Singh Sangwan, Avneesh Jhingan, Raj Mohan Singh, and Arun Monga of the Punjab and Haryana High Court were proposed to be transferred to the Allahabad, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan High Courts, respectively, news agency IANS reported on Thursday.


The defamation saga

Gandhi was sentenced to two years in prison in March for a campaign speech made in 2019 in which he likened Prime Minister Narendra Modi to two Indians accused of swindling money who shared the same last name, including Nirav Modi.

Purnesh Modi, a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) argued that the remark was offensive and filed a lawsuit. The sentence, the maximum for defamation cases, automatically disqualified Gandhi from his seat in Parliament.

Although the Supreme Court later stayed the conviction, paving the way for Gandhi's return to the Lok Sabha, Gujarat HC's Justice Prachchhak had at one stage refused to interfere with it.

Rejecting the petition, Prachchhak had said there was no reasonable ground to suspend it. “The conviction is just, proper and legal.”

Justice Hemant Prachchhak, who dismissed the plea, also observed "representatives of people should be men of clear antecedent" and noted a stay on conviction is not a rule, but an exception, resorted only in rare cases.

Delivering the verdict, Justice Prachchhak noted that Gandhi (53) was already facing 10 criminal cases across India and held the trial court's order handing a two-year jail term to him for his remark -- leading to his disqualification from the Lok Sabha -- was "just, proper and legal".

SC eventually stayed Gandhi's conviction, saying that no reasons were given by the trial judge for imposing the maximum punishment of two years in the case.

“If a constituency in Parliament goes unrepresented, is it not a relevant ground (to suspend conviction)? No whisper by the trial judge for the need to impose the maximum sentence. Not only the right of one individual is being affected, but the entire electorate of the constituency,” observed a bench comprising of Justices B.R. Gavai, P.S. Narasimha, and Prashant Kumar Mishra during the hearing.

Further, the bench remarked that had Gandhi been awarded a sentence of 1 year, 11 months and 29 days, he would have been not disqualified as a Member of Parliament.