Freedom of speech does not extend to ‘defaming' Army: Allahabad HC on case against Rahul Gandhi
The freedom of speech guaranteed by the Constitution does not extend to making defamatory remarks about the Indian Army, the Allahabad High Court said last week while rejecting Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's petition challenging the summons issued to him by a Lucknow court, Bar and Bench reported on Wednesday.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Alok Verma had in February issued the summons to Gandhi, the leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, in a defamation case filed against him. Challenging the order in the High Court, the Congress leader has argued that the case was motivated and lodged in a mala fide manner.
Justice Subhash Vidyarthi of the High Court, however, did not accept Gandhi's contention and rejected his petition on May 29.
'No doubt, Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India guarantees freedom of speech and expression, [but] this freedom is subject to the reasonable restrictions and it does not include the freedom to make statements which are defamatory to any person or defamatory to the Indian Army,' the judge said, according to Bar and Bench.
The defamation case against Gandhi was filed by Uday Shankar Srivastava, a former director of the Border Roads Organisation.
The High Court on May 29 noted that Srivastava's rank was equivalent to that of a Colonel. It said he had expressed deep respect for the Army and that he was personally hurt by Gandhi's comments, Bar and Bench reported.
Due to this, the High Court held that Srivastava qualified as an aggrieved person under Section 199 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which meant that he could file a defamation complaint against the Congress leader.
The judge said that the case before him was only about whether the Lucknow court's summoning order was valid, and held that the merits of the rival claims could be examined at the stage of the trial.
Gandhi had made the comments on December 16, 2022, about a clash between the Indian and Chinese armies along the Line of Actual Control in Arunachal Pradesh's Tawang. The two sides had confronted each other with sticks and canes on December 9, 2022, leading to injuries on both sides.
Gandhi's remarks about the violence were made during the Congress' Bharat Jodo Yatra, a march from Kanyakumari to Kashmir against the allegedly divisive policies of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
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