Sultanpur (UP), Aug 17 The hearing in a defamation case against Rahul Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, was postponed on Monday due to a lawyers' strike, with the court setting August 21 for the next hearing, a lawyer said.
Proceedings could not take place before the MP-MLA court here because lawyers abstained from work following an emergency meeting and resolution by the Sultanpur Bar Association, said Santosh Kumar Pandey, counsel for complainant Vijay Mishra.
"In view of the absence of advocates, the court has fixed August 21 as the next date of hearing," Pandey said. Further legal proceedings will be taken up when the case file is produced before the court on that date, he said.
The defamation complaint relates to remarks allegedly made by Gandhi in Bengaluru against Union Home Minister Amit Shah during the 2018 Karnataka assembly elections campaign.
Mishra filed the complaint before the Sultanpur MP/MLA court on August 4, 2018, alleging that the remarks were defamatory. The complainant referred to Gandhi's comment that the BJP claims to believe in honest and clean politics but has a party president who is an "accused" in a murder case.
Shah was the BJP president when Gandhi remarked.
About four years before Gandhi's remark, a special CBI court in Mumbai had discharged Shah in a 2005 fake encounter case when he was a minister of state for home in Gujarat.
After a warrant was issued in the case, Gandhi first appeared before the court on February 20, 2024, when the court granted him bail on two surety bonds of Rs 25,000 each. His statement was recorded on July 26, 2024, and he last appeared before the court on February 20 this year to present his defence.
