New Delhi: Legal trouble seems to be brewing for Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who was on Monday directed by the Supreme Court to explain his 'chowkidar chor hai' remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which he attributed to the court.
On a day the Supreme Court had allowed fresh documents to be relied upon in a bunch of review petitions in the Rafale case, the Congress leader said the court had upheld that 'chowkidar chor hai'.
But on Monday, the bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi observed that the court had never said anything like this.
Appearing for BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi, when senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi said the Congress leader has wrongly attributed statements to the top court, the CJI replied: "You are right to the extent that we never said anything."
It then decided to seek an explanation from Gandhi after noting that “views, observations attributed to this court in alleged address made by Gandhi to the media and media has been incorrectly attributed to this court".
It pointed out that the court had no occasion to record such views and observations. “We decided on legal questions of admissibility of some documents. Having clarified, we deem it proper to seek a reply," ordered the bench.
Under the contempt jurisdiction, unless exempted by the court by way of a specific order, an alleged contemnor is supposed to remain present in such a matter. The court, however, said it was only seeking an explanation from Gandhi for the moment, which meant he would not have to appear in person next Tuesday.
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