Sonia, Rahul Gandhi move Supreme Court in Herald case

Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son, party vice-president Rahul Gandhi, moved the Supreme Court on Thursday seeking to quash the Delhi high court order upholding the issuance of summons to them in the National Herald case relating to misappropriation and criminal breach of trust.

The appellants, who are scheduled to appear in the trial court on February 20, besides seeking to set aside the impugned order sought stay of the summons and all further proceedings pending in the Patiala House trial court in the complaint filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy (who has also filed a caveat in the apex court).

They said the complainant was acting as a political activist rather than a legitimate complainant or a conscious citizen. The predominant purpose of filing the complaint was to defame the important leaders of the Congress party as a political move. In a case of cheating, it is necessary that the person or the entity that is alleged to have become the victim of offence of cheating alone can elaborate what the misrepresentation was and how and in what manner the victim of cheating was misled. The persons alleged to have cheated or the persons against whom there has been a misrepresentation had not approached the court.

Further, the giving of loans to AJL by the Congress party is an action which is in consonance with the objects of the Congress party and also in consonance with the objects of AJL and, therefore, there is absolutely no illegality or irregularity in funding the activities of AJL by the Congress party. Further, there is no restriction in the constitution of the Congress party on giving such loans.

They said the HC judgment dated December 7, 2015 is liable to be interfered with because the single judge has conducted a fishing and roving inquiry into allegations of a general nature without examining the question as to what offences are alleged to be prima facie made out. The observation that writing off of the debt by the Congress party attracts the allegations of cheating, fraud, etc., is an observation which is clearly beyond even the stated case of the complainant.

The observations about the Congress party are completely unfounded and did not even arise in the facts of the present case.