Prayagraj: The Allahabad High Court on Thursday said that right to freedom of speech and expression does not include making defamatory statements against any person or the Indian Army.
The court rejected a petition filed by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi seeking to quash summons issued to him over alleged derogatory remarks that he made during his cross-country Bharat Jodo Yatra in 2022, The Indian Express reported.
The Leader of Opposition challenged the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate’s order that directed him to face the trial in the case under Section 500 of the Penal Code.
A bench of Justice Subhash Vidyarthi issued the order after Gandhi sought to quash the entire proceedings of the complaint.
The court said freedom of speech and expression guaranteed by Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India is subject to the reasonable restrictions, adding that ‘it does not include the freedom to make statements which are defamatory to any person or defamatory to the Indian Army’.
The court made it clear that it is not required to assess the merits of rival claims while examining the validity of the summoning order.
‘In view of the foregoing discussion, I am of the considered view that the trial court has rightly arrived at the decision to summon the applicant to face trial for the offence under Section 500 IPC after taking into consideration all the relevant facts and circumstances of the case and after satisfying himself that a prima facie case for trial of the applicant is made out. The impugned summoning order dated 11.02.2025 passed by the trial court does not suffer from any illegality warranting interference by this Court in exercise of its inherent powers. The application under Section 482 Cr.P.C. lacks merits and the same is dismissed,’ the court reportedly said.
Udai Shankar Srivastava, retired from the post of Director in Border Roads Organisation, reportedly filed the defamation against Rahul Gandhi alleging that the Congress leader made derogatory remarks on December 16, 2022 during his ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’.
The remarks, referring to a face-off between the Indian Army and the Chinese Army at the border in Arunachal Pradesh on December 9, 2022 , were made in the presence of mediapersons and a large gathering.
‘People will ask about Bharat Jodo Yatra, here and there, Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot and what not. But they will not ask a single question about China capturing 2000 square km of Indian territory, killing 20 Indian soldiers and thrashing our soldiers in Arunachal Pradesh. But the Indian press doesn’t ask a question to them about this. Isn’t it true? The nation is watching all this. Don’t pretend that people don’t know,’ he reportedly said.