Supreme Court to hear Rahul Gandhi contempt plea on Monday

Congress president Rahul Gandhi came in the line of fire on Friday as the Supreme Court decided to hear a contempt petition against him on Monday. He had said that the Supreme Court had ruled against Centre in the Rafale jet deal.

The petition filed by BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi was mentioned for urgent listing before a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi.

Former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, representing Lekhi, invited the Court's attention to the remarks made by Rahul on April 10. He produced excerpts of Rahul's statement attributing the Chief Justice of India to have said that "Chowkidar of this country is chor and he has given money to Anil Ambani." The petition filed by Lekhi sought criminal contempt proceedings to be initiated against Rahul.

The charge is that the Congress President for dragged the judiciary into his political campaign. By attributing words that court never said, the petition argued that Rahul was guilty of lowering the majesty and dignity of the top court and must be suitably punished.

The comments had come soon after SC allowed certain secret documents to be relied on for considering the review petitions filed by two former Union ministers – Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie and advocate Prashant Bhushan.