Attorney General KK Venugopal denied a lawyer's request to sue Rahul Gandhi for contempt. The Attorney claimed that the Congress leader's statements on the judiciary are "too vague" to lower the dignity of the institution.
Lawyer Vineet Jindal had written to Mr Venugopal for consent to initiate a contempt of court case in the Supreme Court against Rahul Gandhi for his remarks in a recent interview. According to the rules, such a permission is required before the Supreme Court can hear any contempt case filed by an individual.
The fiasco started when in an interview, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that "this country has a legal system where one had 100 per cent freedom to express their opinion. It is very clear that the BJP is inserting its people in all these institutions of the country. It is very obvious. They are taking away the institutional framework of this country."
Vineet Jindal wrote that the Congress leader had insulted the judiciary with such comments. However, top government lawyer disagreed with Vineet saying that Rahul Gandhi had made a "general" statement on the judiciary and had not specifically referred to the Supreme Court or any particular judge.
The Attorney General said, "the question of my granting consent would not arise. In any event, I am of the opinion that the statements in question are too vague to be said to have lowered the authority of the institution in the eyes of the public."
