The Supreme Court has acknowledged a lawyer's concern about a delay in Rahul Gandhi's case, affirming that everyone is treated equally.

The Supreme Court of New Delhi addressed a claim by the complainant's lawyer in a defamation case against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, stating that every individual is treated equally under the law. The lawyer had expressed concern that the case had not been listed for a hearing in a significant amount of time. The matter at hand is Gandhi's petition challenging a previous order from the Allahabad High Court, which had dismissed his plea to overturn a trial court's summoning order.

This order was related to Gandhi's alleged derogatory remarks about the Indian Army during his Bharat Jodo Yatra in 2022. Last year, on August 4th, the apex court had halted any further proceedings in the complaint case until the next hearing date. On December 4th, the court had accepted Gandhi's appeal and scheduled a detailed hearing for April 22nd.

Recently, there were applications to expedite the hearing of two separate petitions related to another defamation case, which had been previously linked to Gandhi's plea. These applications were listed before a bench consisting of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana. During the proceedings, Senior Advocate Gaurav Bhatia, representing the complainant, requested for the matter to be heard and de-tagged from the two other petitions.

The bench instructed Bhatia to submit an appropriate application for this purpose. Bhatia also urged for a specific hearing date for Gandhi's plea, stating that despite the previous order to list it on April 22nd, the matter had not been listed. He expressed concern that this situation did not bode well for the integrity of the institution, emphasizing that Gandhi is not a VVIP and should not receive special treatment.

In response, the bench assured Bhatia that everyone is treated equally under the law and directed him to file a separate application for an early hearing. The court had previously issued a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government and the complainant, Udai Shankar Srivastava, seeking their responses to Gandhi's plea. The complainant had alleged that during his 2022 yatra, Gandhi had made defamatory statements about the Indian Army in light of the clashes with Chinese soldiers.

The trial court had summoned Gandhi as an accused, and his counsel had argued before the high court that the entire facts and evidence had not been examined to determine if there was a case for trial on the charge of defamation. In other news, Orissa POST, Odisha's No.1 English Daily, reported on the developments of the case.