New Delhi, May 8:Ahead of the May 10 hearing, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday tendered an “unconditional apology” to the Supreme Court over his ‘chowkidar chor hai’ jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrongly attributed to the top court.
In his latest affidavit–third on the issue–the Congress president tendered an unconditional apology for wrongfully attributing his controversial remarks to the court and requested it to drop contempt proceedings against him.In his earlier two affidavits, Gandhi had merely expressed “regret” over his comments and said that the remarks were made in the heat of political campaigning.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had issued notice to him on a contempt petition filed by Delhi BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi accusing him of misquoting the top court’s verdict on admissibility of certain documents in the Rafale review petitions’ hearing.Admitting that he wrongly attributed his ‘chowkidar chor hai’ jibe at Modi to the court’s April 10 verdict on admissibility of certain documents in the Rafale case, Rahul on April 30 had issued a verbal apology to the Supreme Court for his mistake.
“I am saying sorry….I sincerely apologise for attributing the comments to the honourable court,” senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing Gandhi, had told a Bench headed by CJI Gogoi.
“But where is the apology in your affidavit? When you commit a mistake, you should admit the mistake,” the Bench– which also included Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice KM Joseph–had said. “We have great difficulty in understanding what you want to say in the affidavit,” it added.
“I (Gandhi) will file a short affidavit unconditionally apologising to the court,” Singhvi had said. He said his client admitted that he made a mistake and that’s why he expressed regret.
On behalf of Lekhi, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi had said that Gandhi had only expressed regret and not apologised to the court.
Accusing Gandhi of dragging the top court into a political fight, Rohatgi had said, “It’s like adding insult to the injury…You either justify your comment or tender an unconditional apology.”
The Bench had pointed out contradictions in Gandhi’s affidavit saying he was both admitting his mistake and justifying it. “You make the statement and then justify it. Where in our order we have said so? How do you attribute all these statements to us?” asked the Bench which had earlier clarified that it had never made such remarks about the PM.
“We make it clear that the views or representation attributed to the court in the alleged address made by the respondent (Rahul Gandhi) to the media and public at large has been incorrectly attributed to this court. We had no such occasion to make such a comment during the hearing,” the top court had said on April 15 asking Gandhi to explain his remarks.
He had filed an affidavit expressing mere “regret” for the lapse. This led to the court issuing him notice on April 23 and seeking a formal reply to Lekhi’s contempt petition.
In his affidavit filed in response to the Supreme Court’s contempt notice, Gandhi had again expressed “regret” and undertaken not to “attribute any views, observations or findings to the court in political addresses to the media and in public speeches, unless such views, observations or findings are recorded by the court”.
Accusing Lekhi of dragging the court into a political controversy “for personal gains and political mileage”, he had requested the top court to dismiss her contempt petition against him “at the very threshold”.
On April 6, the Bench had said it would take up the contempt case against Gandhi along with the Rafale review petitions on May 10.
