Maharashtra: Rahul Gandhi to appear in Bhiwandi Court to 'honour commitment', despite exemption

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi will on Friday appear in a court in Bhiwandi in Thane district of Maharashtra for a hearing in a defamation case against him.

"RG will be in Bhiwandi this morning to honour commitment to the trial court," said a tweet from his new twitter handle @OfficeOfRG

Rahul Gandhi is appearing in the court even though the Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the proceedings against him.

RG will be in Bhiwandi this morning to honour commitment to the trial court

— Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) May 8, 2015

"There shall be stay of further proceedings in a case pending before the trial court till the next date of hearing," a bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and PC Pant said.

Gandhi has been sued by an RSS activist Rajesh Kunte for allegedly blaming RSS for the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. The activist has alleged that the Congress leader had said at a rally during last year's Lok Sabha poll that a worker of the saffron outfit killed Mahatma Gandhi.

Earlier, Gandhi's plea seeking to quash the complaint filed by RSS activist Rajesh Kunte before a magisterial court in Bhiwandi in Thane district of Maharashtra was rejected by the Bombay High Court on March 10.

The apex court also issued notices to the Centre and an RSS activist who had filed the complaint seeking their reply within four weeks and posted the matter for hearing on July 8.

The bench also made it clear that it will not go into the merits of any of the defamation cases filed against these persons and only examine the legality of the penal provisions.
"We are not going to touch upon the merits of these cases.

We are not going to address merits in these cases. We are only on the constitutional validity of sections 499 and 500 of IPC," the bench said.