Rahul Gandhi acquitted in Amit Shah defamation case as court rejects complainant

A Sultanpur MP-MLA court acquitted Rahul Gandhi in the Amit Shah defamation case. The ruling stressed that political criticism and criminal complaints must meet legal thresholds.Image used for representational purposes onlySultanpur,Oct 27, 2026 22:52 ISTA special MP-MLA court has acquitted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a defamation case over his remarks against Amit Shah, ruling that the complainant was not an aggrieved person and had not been authorised by the BJP to seek legal recourse, news agency Press Trust of India reported.In its 49-page judgement delivered on Monday, the court in Sultanpur also held that Gandhi's alleged statement was prima facie not defamatory, considering the legal and political background of the case. BJP leader Vijay Mishra had filed the complaint over remarks made by Gandhi against Shah at a rally in Bengaluru ahead of the 2018 Karnataka Assembly elections.Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Shubham Verma rejected Mishra's argument that he was entitled to file the complaint because he was a BJP office-bearer. Mishra is a local BJP leader and former chairman of the District Cooperative Bank in Sultanpur.“The legal factual position is clear: he is not authorised by the BJP to do so, and no statement to that effect has been made,” the judge said. “For the sake of argument, the complainant's contention that he is entitled to file a complaint as a BJP office-bearer is accepted; then this argument would grant all BJP office-bearers and members the right to file a suit for the alleged statement or slander, which, in the court's opinion, would give rise to numerous suits,” he added.The court also said Mishra had not examined any independent witness to prove that his public standing had been damaged. “The complaint alleges that one member of the organisation humiliated another by showing him a video, while Ramchandra Dubey and Anil Mishra, the witnesses who watched the video with the complainant, made no claim of feeling humiliated,” the judge said during the proceedings, which lasted 14 minutes. “In a law-governed civilised society, any concept which gives rise to or supports multiple suits cannot be recognised by the law and courts. In particular, in view of the provisions laid down in Section 199 of the CrPC regarding action for criminal defamation, it cannot be accepted at all,” he said.According to the judgement, “In the opinion of the court, the complainant in the present case is neither an aggrieved person nor is the alleged statement prima facie defamatory in view of the specific legal and political background of the present case. Therefore, in such a situation, the accused Rahul Gandhi deserves to be acquitted under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code of the charges levelled against him.”The court further said, “In the considered opinion of the court, the allegations made by the accused are not of a higher level, category or degree than what is normally required by law in the context of political persons and parties, which can bring his statement into the category of defamation or make it defamatory.”Speaking to PTI on Tuesday, Gandhi's advocate Kashi Prasad Shukla described the complaint as “politically motivated”.“On looking at the complaint narrative as a whole, the manner in which the facts and events have been described in the complaint letter prima facie appears to be doubtful, unrealistic and unverifiable, and motivated by political or other motives, with the sole purpose of presenting the complaint by hook or crook, which is totally against the intent of the law,” Shukla said.Shukla said Gandhi arrived at the court at around 11.19 am on Monday. The hearing lasted around 14 minutes, after which Judge Shubham Verma acquitted him. Gandhi then thanked the judge, Shukla said.According to Shukla, the case had 140 hearings and Gandhi appeared in person four times. “Rahul Gandhi personally appeared for the first time on February 20, 2024, followed by July 26, 2024, February 20, 2026, and finally on October 26, Monday,” he told PTI.Mishra's advocate Santosh Pandey told PTI that they would appeal against the acquittal before the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court. “We will appeal in the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court, since it is a complaint case and because Rahul Gandhi has been acquitted,” Pandey said.Mishra said they had 60 days from the date of the judgement to file the appeal. “We are yet to get the certified copy of the judgement. We will thoroughly go through it and analyse it from the legal point of view. After this, we will move the High Court,” he said.Mishra filed the complaint on August 4, 2018. The court has now acquitted Gandhi after finding that Mishra was not an aggrieved person authorised by the BJP and that the alleged remarks did not prima facie meet the threshold for defamation in their legal and political context.- Ends