The Supreme Court on Wednesday said “everyone is equal” before it and asked the complainant in a criminal defamation case against the leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi to follow the prescribed procedure if he wanted an early hearing, after his lawyer alleged that the court registry was treating the Congress leader as a “VVIP”.
“He is not a VVIP. The matter was listed five months ago also and was not taken up. This does not augur well for the institution as well,” said Bhatia, referring to the court’s December 2025 order directing that the matter be listed on April 22.
He cited the official statement issued by the Army in this regard. The case had earlier come before a bench of justices Dipankar Datta and Augustine George Masih, which on August 4, 2025 stayed further proceedings. That bench questioned Gandhi about the basis for his claim that Chinese troops captured 2,000sq km of Indian territory and also observed that such issues involving a border conflict ought to be raised in Parliament. Gandhi’s petition in the top court claimed that already he is facing over 20 cases in speech related offences. Meanwhile, Srivastava, in his complaint, alleged that the statement made by Gandhi in 2022 is false and baseless and was given with an evil intention of demoralising the Indian Army. He pointed out that contrary to what was stated by the Congress leader, a scuffle took place in Yangsi region Arunachal Pradesh on December 9, 2022, following which the Indian Army successfully restrained the Chinese Army from entering the territory protected by it and badly chased them away.
Gandhi said he was exercising his right to free speech and seeking to draw public attention to issues that, in his view, were not being adequately raised. “These proceedings are nothing but lawfare – a clear abuse of the process of law in furtherance of wielding the heckler’s veto to muzzle and silence the petitioner from articulating his opposition to the ruling government’s policies and positions,” stated the appeal. The complainant further stated that the statement has been made by Gandhi “knowingly and mischievously” under a “conspiracy to cause an adverse effect on national integrity and unity of the Indian Army” as the same was widely published by the newspapers.
The bench, however, asked him to move an application seeking an early hearing. “Let us follow the procedure. File an application seeking early hearing…Everyone is equal before us. Please file an application for early hearing.
We will take it up,” said the bench.
