Now Reading: Supreme Court quashes Rahul Gandhi case over Savarkar remarks
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Supreme Court quashes Rahul Gandhi case over Savarkar remarks
The Supreme Court on Friday quashed the criminal complaint and summons against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his 2022 remarks describing Vinayak Damodar Savarkar as a British collaborator. A bench of Justices…
The Story in Brief
The Supreme Court on Friday quashed the criminal complaint and summons against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his 2022 remarks describing Vinayak Damodar Savarkar as a British collaborator. A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu held that the Uttar Pradesh government's affidavit did not disclose the sanction required to prosecute the Leader of Opposition under Sections 153A and 505 of the Indian Penal Code.
The complaint was filed by advocate Nripendra Pandey after Gandhi, during the Bharat Jodo Yatra at Akola, said Savarkar worked for the British and drew a pension from them. A Lucknow magistrate had summoned Gandhi in 2024, and the Allahabad High Court refused relief in April 2025. The bench noted, "If there is no sanction, there is no case."
The Indian Opinion
The court's ruling is narrowly procedural, but the noise around it will be anything but. Critics will call it a technical escape, supporters a vindication. Both miss the point: the magistrate's order collapsed not on the merits of Gandhi's words but on the state's failure to follow its own law. The real test is whether the UP government now files a fresh case with the required sanction, or lets the matter die. Watch what Lucknow does next, not what Delhi says.
Sources (2): siasat.com, rediff.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above.
