He Suffers "Irreparable Loss & Irreversible Injury," Rahul Gandhi's Lawyer During Hearing

On Thursday Senior Advocate RS Cheema during a Surat court hearing of Rahul Gandhi's request for a stay on his conviction in the 2019 defamation case said, Gandhi had suffered “irreparable loss and irreversible injury."

The proceeding was heard by Justice Robin Mogera.

Gandhi had exclaimed the defamatory sentence 5 years back, while campaigning in Karnataka's Kolar ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and was convicted and sentenced to two years in jail.

Addressing Gandhi’s risked political career Cheema stressed, the conviction made my client lose his constituency and is no longer qualified to serve as an MP in the Lok Sabha.

He requested the court to consider his convictions to be overturned, saying Supreme Court judgments allow convictions to stay, on the merits of exceptional circumstances.

The lawyer said that in deciding whether the conviction should stay, the court has to consider the "facts and merits of the case."

He further argued the case didn’t involve a life imprisonment or death sentence and the court can consider a stay on the conviction.

Emphasising Rahul Gandhi, Cheema said my client did not get a fair trial to state his speech and was not intended to defame anyone. He argued that Gandhi's entire speech was not submitted in court, pointing out that the complainant had read about the speech in newspapers.

Further, the lawyer highlighted that the entire speech is available on YouTube.