Once again upholding themselves as the pioneers of neutrality and democracy, the Supreme Court has taken an unapologetic stance against those indulging in wrongdoings. The apex court has rejected the second affidavit filed by Congress President Rahul Gandhi for his remarks on the Rafale judgment as the apology and regret for which the affidavit was filed were ironically missing from the affidavit.
The Supreme Court had issued a contempt of court notice against Rahul Gandhi, after his 22-page affidavit, last week had proved to be futile. This was in light of the court accepting the documents in the Rafale review petition, Rahul Gandhi had stated, “The SC has made it clear that chowkidarji was involved in the theft”. On the basis of this fabrication, attributed to the court, BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi had filed a petition of criminal contempt of court against Rahul Gandhi. Following the contempt of court notice, the court had issued a hearing on 30th April 2019 for the same.
In the hearing today, the court had all but thrown the 2nd affidavit submitted by Rahul Gandhi’s advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, out of the court. The affidavit submitted in the court had contradicted itself, with Rahul Gandhi attempting to justify the comment at one point and then regretting it all the same. The court stated, “You have contradicted yourself in the affidavit. At one place, you admit your statement but on the other, you deny saying it.”
#SupremeCourt pulls up #RahulGandhi in contempt case. * "You are compelling us to say things now.. We refrained from saying anything further on the last date but this is your second affidavit. We never said it.. You attributed the foment to us and now you are trying to justify?"
— Utkarsh Anand (@utkarsh_aanand) April 30, 2019
In an attempt to justify the statement, Rahul Gandhi had earlier stated that the comments were made in the heat of the campaigning. Moreover, he said that he made the comments without reading the order. On this, Mukul Rohatgi appearing for Meenakshi Lekhi said, “He claims to be a literate person. But in his affidavit he says, I didn’t read or analyze the order when I made this comment. Three hours later, he says it again at a different rally. What kind of regret is he talking about?”
The bench, expressing its disdain on being involved in political fabrications and fake propaganda said, “You are compelling us to say things now. We refrained from saying anything further on the last date but this is your second affidavit. We never said it. You attributed the foment to us and now you are trying to justify?”
The court further continued, “When you make a mistake, accept it. Everyone does it.”
Singhvi, arguing further, stated that Rahul Gandhi has apologized unconditionally for the remark in the affidavit. Whereas the truth of the matter is, in the affidavit, the word ‘regret’ was stated in brackets. The bench remarked that it could not understand why it was so and asked if there was a statement of Rahul Gandhi’s apology at all in the affidavit. Singhvi, trying to be sassy stated this was all the apology there is and said, “I’ve checked with the dictionary. Regret means an apology.”
The CJI-led Supreme Court bench practically threw this feeble attempt of an apology on Singhvi’s face and in disbelief demanded, “Is this how you express regret? Show us where is that complete regret?”
Abhishek Manu Singhvi apologized in the end and was directed to file another affidavit on Monday. Hopefully, the third time is lucky for the grand old party.