Despite expressing regrets, the Supreme Court on Tuesday issued contempt notice to Congress President Rahul Gandhi for misquoting the apex court on the Rafale judgment. During the hearing on the contempt petition filed by BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi, a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjeev Khanna said Rahul had “incorrectly attributed” the verdict to it. The contempt petition will now be taken up on April 30 which will be taken up along with the review petition against the Rafale deal verdict of December 14 last year.

“On hearing senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi on behalf of Gandhi in the contempt petition we deem it fit to issue a notice to the respondent (Rahul) Gandhi,” the court said. The Supreme Court had on April 15 asked Gandhi to give his explanation on April 22 on the remarks made on the Rafale case verdict. Gandhi said that he had misquoted the apex court’s verdict and had done it as a “rhetorical flourish in the heat of political campaigning.”

“My political opponents wrongly projected that I had deliberately and intentionally suggested that the Supreme Court had said ‘Chowkidar chor hai’. Nothing could be farther from my mind,” he had said in his affidavit to the Supreme Court.

—India Legal Bureau