Supreme Court has extended the stay on Rahul Gandhi’s trial in the alleged Army remarks case.

The Supreme Court on Thursday extended till April 22 next year its interim order staying proceedings against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a case related to his alleged derogatory comments against the Indian Army during the 2022 Bharat Jodo Yatra.

A bench of Justices MM Sundaresh and Satish Chandra Sharma allowed the appeal filed by Gandhi and said it would hear the matter in detail.

The bench was hearing Gandhi’s plea challenging the Allahabad High Court’s May 29 order, which had rejected his plea challenging the trial court’s summoning order in the case.

While hearing Gandhi’s petition on August 4, the apex court had stayed further proceedings in the case pending before a Lucknow court till the next date of hearing.

“How did you know that 2,000 sq km of Indian territory has been occupied by the Chinese? Were you there? Do you have any reliable material?” The bench had earlier asked Gandhi about his alleged comments.

It said, “Why do you make such statements without any material? If you are a true Indian, you would not say such a thing.”

The apex court had then issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government and the complainant in the case, seeking their response on Gandhi’s plea.

Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Gandhi, had told the top court that it would be an unfortunate situation if the opposition leader could not raise the issues.

He cited Section 223 of the Indian Civil Defense Code and said that prior hearing of the accused was mandatory before the court could take cognizance of the criminal complaint, which was not done in the present case.

In his petition filed in a court, complainant Uday Shankar Srivastava alleged that Gandhi made several derogatory comments against the Indian Army in the context of the clash with Chinese troops during his December 2022 visit.

The trial court summoned Gandhi as an accused to face trial for the alleged offense of defamation. Gandhi’s lawyer Pranshu Aggarwal argued that even after reading the complaint, the allegations appear to be fabricated.

It was also argued that Gandhi was not a resident of Lucknow. The trial court should, therefore, have examined the veracity of the allegations before summoning him on this complaint, and should have summoned him only if the allegations were prima facie found fit for trial.