Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday dismissed a defamation case filed by the Bharatiya Janata Party against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, providing significant legal relief to the Leader of the Opposition in India’s Parliament.
The case stemmed from the sharing of a newspaper cover by Gandhi during the 2023 Karnataka Assembly election campaign. The advertisement, published by the Indian National Congress, accused the then BJP-led state government of demanding a “40 percent commission” on public works contracts.
A single-judge bench led by Justice S. Sunil Dutt Yadav ruled that continuing criminal proceedings would amount to an abuse of the legal process. The court accepted Gandhi’s plea challenging the maintainability of the defamation complaint.
The complaint had been filed by BJP leader Keshav Prasad, who alleged that Gandhi, along with Karnataka Congress leaders Siddaramaiah and D. K. Shivakumar, had conspired to defame the BJP through misleading political advertisements and campaign slogans.
The BJP claimed that the allegations unfairly targeted its leaders, including then Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, and damaged the party’s reputation ahead of the state elections.
Gandhi had argued before the court that political criticism during an election campaign cannot be criminalized and that the case was intended to harass opposition leaders. The High Court agreed, quashing the complaint and bringing the matter to a close.
The ruling is seen as a setback for the BJP and a boost for the Congress leadership, particularly as Rahul Gandhi continues to play a central role as Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.