New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday kept hanging its contempt sword on Congress President Rahul Gandhi, at least for another two weeks despite his written “unconditional apology”. The Bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and KM Joseph reserved its ruling to be pronounced with the judgment on the review petitions challenging its December 14 verdict on the Rafale deal. The contempt case was taken up only at the fag end after the bench spent the day hearing the review petitions of former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie and activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan and AAP MP Sanjay Singh.
The court has clubbed the criminal contempt petition of BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi with the Rafale review petition only because Rahul had reflected on its April 10 order by claiming the court had found “chowkidar chor hai” while rejecting the government’s preliminary objections to that review petition. Since the bench gave two weeks to the parties to file their written submissions in the review case, the contempt petition will now come only after that period as the court refused plea of senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi to close the case in view of Rahul’s apology in the latest affidavit filed two days ago.
Former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Lekhi, insisted on the court passing an order asking Rahul to apologise for scandalising the court as he had led public astray by saying it had endorsed his claim of “chowkidar chor hai.”
Singhvi said Rahul had expressed regret even before the court had issued notice to him and when the court did not accept that regret is as good as an apology, he filed the new affidavit expressing apology.
In his three-page affidavit, Rahul tendered an “unconditional apology” for “unintentionally” attributing certain comments to the top court. “The deponent further states that any such attributions were entirely unintentional, non-willful and inadvertent.” Stating he has “never sought or intended to, directly or indirectly, commit any act that interferes with the process of the administration of justice,” he requested the court to close the contempt proceedings against him.
