Chief Judicial Magistrate of Surat, Hadirash H. Varma, who convicted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the 2019 defamation case and sentenced him to two years imprisonment, has been promoted as the district judge of Rajkot.

The CJM court had convicted Gandhi on March 23 this year, for allegedly saying that all thieves have Modi surname.

Addressing an election rally in Kolar district of Karnataka on April 13, 2019, the former MP from Wayanad constituency in Kerala had said, “Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, Narendra Modi. How come all the thieves have ‘Modi’ as a common surname?”

Taking exception to the remark, former BJP MLA Purnesh Modi filed a case against Gandhi,  claiming that the Congress leader humiliated and defamed persons with the Modi surname.

The Magistrate court in Surat accepted the contention of Purnesh Modi that by his speech, Gandhi had intentionally insulted the people having the surname ‘Modi’.

In his 168-page judgment, CJM Varma observed that since Gandhi was a Member of Parliament (MP), he should have realised that whatever he said, was bound to have a ‘very wide impact’ on the public.

The judge held that Rahul had taken the reference of the surname of current Prime Minister Narendra Modi for satisfying his political greed, while insulting and defaming about 13 crore people living in the country having the surname ‘Modi.

The court further observed that if the accused was given a lesser punishment, it would send a wrong message to the public and the purpose of defamation law would not be fulfilled.

As per the Surat court, the Congress leader could have limited his speech to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya, Mehul Choksi and Anil Ambani, but he “intentionally” made a statement that hurt individuals carrying the Modi surname, thereby committing criminal defamation.

It said Gandhi knew the impact his remark would have on the public as the speech was delivered during an election campaign.

The CJM convicted Rahul under Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code for defamation and sentenced him to two years imprisonment. This led to his disqualification from the Lok Sabha.

The Surat court further mentioned the criminal contempt proceedings initiated against Gandhi by the Supreme Court in 2018 over his ‘chowkidaar chor hai’ remark, noting that the Apex Court had then asked him to ‘remain’ alert in the future after he tendered an unconditional apology. However, there seems to be no change in his conduct, CJM Varma had noted. 

The Counsel for Rahul said that he delivered the speech according to his duty in the interest of people, and that he did not discriminate against anybody but loved and cherished all people of the country. He further submitted that Rahul did not intend to insult anybody intentionally.

The Surat court further rejected the defence’s argument that the electronic evidence produced by the complainant in the form of CDs and a pen drive containing the controversial speech might have been tampered with. It noted that a mere allegation without any evidence cannot be accepted.

The High Court of Gujarat had reserved its orders on May 2 on the petition filed by Rahul Gandhi seeking a stay on his conviction in the defamation case.

The Single-Judge Bench of Justice Hemant Prachchhak refused to grant any interim protection to the Congress leader and said that the decision on whether a stay could be granted on his conviction would be delivered by the Bench after the High Court vacations.

The Gujarat High Court issued notice to the Principal Secretary, Education Department, Government of Gujarat and Commissioner, regarding the Mid-day Meal Schemes of State of Gujarat.

On Friday, the division bench of Justice J. B. Pardiwala and Justice Ilesh J. Vora took suo motu cognizance after taking into account a news report that mid-day meals are not being made available to 52 lakh children since March 2020. The state government is not providing mid-day meals to the children and neither ration or food coupons were issued to them.

In a survey conducted by the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) and the UNICEF Gujarat, 85 percent of the parents said that since March, children are not getting any benefit of the mid-day meal scheme. Even in the month of March, only 30% of the children took advantage of it.

Gujarat Congress Chief Spokesperson Manish Doshi had recently raised the issue that 52 lakh children of poor and general category, who were getting benefits under the Mid-Day Meal Scheme, are not getting it since March. The government also did not provide ration or food coupons to these children. Doshi said the government used to distribute milk to the children in tribal areas, which is completely closed during the coronavirus epidemic.

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Around 52 lakh children were being provided nutritious food under the Mid-Day Meal Scheme in many cities of the state, including Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot and in the villages but it was completely stopped during the epidemic. It is worth mentioning that 100 gram food was given to children from Class 1 to 8 and 150 gm of food grains were given to children from Class 5 to 10 and Rs. 4.50 per student, which has been completely stopped for the last 9 months.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Central government to file a status report by December 15 on the receipt of audit reports from all states, union territories on Covid-19 facilities in the suo motu case on proper treatment of Covid patients after the death of 8 persons in a fire at a Rajkot Covid facility in November.

The bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R. Subhash Reddy and M.R. Shah told the Gujarat government to file a detailed affidavit on the Rajkot tragedy. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the bench that the report with regard to the fire safety audit of states is under preparation. The Apex Court had granted time to the Centre till Monday last to file the status report as but it has not been filed yet.

Justice Shah said the Supreme Court had directed the home secretary to take steps but nothing has been done. Mehta said a committee would inquire Rajkot Covid-19 hospital incident.

With this, the court also ordered to compile, audit and filed all data within 3 days. The Gujarat government submitted the committee looking into the Ahmedabad fire incident may also inquire into the Rajkot incident. To this, the bench said it is open for the state government to do so. The matter will now be heard on Monday.

Advocate Aparna Bhat appeared for the applicant whose wife was among the eight people who died in the Rajkot fire.

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Last month, the top court had observed that the pandemic situation is likely to worsen across the country and that the states as well as the Centre must be well-equipped to deal with the crisis. Following which the bench had directed Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Assam to file status reports with respect to Covid-19 cases, the ground situation for handling crisis as well as steps taken.

Read the order here;

The Supreme Court on Tuesday pulled up the Gujarat government report in the fire that broke out in a Covid-19 designated hospital in Rajkot, Gujarat on November 27, killing six persons. The fire in the hospital was said to have broken out due to a short circuit. The bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R. Subhash Reddy and M. R. Shah were hearing the suo motu case for proper treatment of Covid-19 patients and the dignified handling of dead bodies in hospitals.

In today’s hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the Centre had filed an affidavit and issued guidelines. In the affidavit, Mehta said the committee head has been changed and the case will now be headed by Justice BA Mehta.

While saying the state should not suppress facts, Justice M.R. Shah observed, “Nothing has been done with the hospital. The Gujarat government is satisfied with the commission’s report. What about the people who died on the 7th floor. What about the report which says that the wiring was faulty and all of a sudden everything is fine now.” The court adjourned the matter to December 3.

The court had earlier taken suo motu cognizance of the fire that broke out in a Covid-19 designated hospital and stated that fire incidents in the hospitals were repetitive and authorities have not issued measures and guidelines to prevent such incidents.

In the previous hearing on November 23, SG Mehta had asked the bench not to issue any direction for the time being and that the Central government would come up with some guidelines, which was filed on Tuesday. 

The Supreme Court in June had issued directions to states and union territories to ensure continuous monitoring and supervision of government hospitals and those dedicated to treatment of Covid-19 patients. The case also revolves around the proper and humane treatment of bodies of Covid-19 deceased. There had been suo motu proceedings in High Courts over media reports that Covid facilities were inhumanely treating the remains of the deceased in their mortuaries.

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