The fight for relief in the Rahul Gandhi criminal defamation case in the Supreme Court will revolve around the question whether the term ‘Modi’ is an identifiable and definite group or collection of persons.
The Single Judge of the Gujarat High Court has held that the ‘Modi’ community or surname is a “well-defined identifiable and suable class”. In fact, Justice Hemant Prachchhak, in his 125-page judgment, said Mr. Gandhi’s offence is all the more serious because his “thief” remarks affected a large section of society and not just Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“The defamation alleged was of a large identifiable class and not just an individual… the conviction partakes the character of an offence affecting a large section of the public, and by definition, the society at large, and not just a case of an individual-centric defamation case,” the judge expounded.
