New Delhi: Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday apologised to the Supreme Court for incorrectly attributing the “chowkidar chor hai” remark to the top court. His counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi offered the apology on behalf of Gandhi, a day after the Congress President filed a reply to the apex court’s notice on the issue, in which he had only expressed regret for the comments.
In his affidavit, Gandhi said he had made the remark in the “heat of campaigning” and that his comment was not meant to scandalise the court in any manner. The top court had last week issued a notice to him asking him to explain his comment.
Though Gandhi, through his counsel, admitted he made a mistake by wrongly attributing the remark to the apex court, a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi observed that in the affidavit filed, at one point the Congress is admitting the mistake and at one point denying of making contemptuous remarks.
“We have great difficulty in understanding what you want to say in the affidavit,” said the bench, also comprising justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph. The top court told Gandhi’s counsel that it was not concerned with the political stand narrated in the affidavit.
Gandhi said the use of word regret in the affidavit is like an apology for wrongly attributing the remark which was never made by the apex court. BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi, who had filed the contempt petition against Gandhi, said it is the grossest kind of contempt. The court posted the matter for hearing on May 6.
With PTI inputs
