National Herald case: SC exempts Sonia, Rahul from personal appearance before trial court

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay trial court proceedings against Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case but it exempted them from personally appearing in the hearing scheduled for February 20 in a Patiala House court.

A bench headed by Justice J S Khehar, however, expunged remarks made against Gandhis by the Delhi high court.

However, the apex court expressed its unhappiness at the Delhi high court’s conduct while it rejected an appeal by the Gandhis to quash the case.

The bench said that it was wrong on the part of the high court to give findings against Congress leaders when the trial court proceedings was yet to begin.

“Let there be fair trial in the case. We expunged the remaks made by HC and trial court proceeds in the case without getting influenced by HC observations,” the bench said.

The next date of hearing in the trial court is on Feb 20.

The Delhi HC judgment had said that the “probity of the legendary national political party” was “at stake” in the case, as the officebearers of the party held National Herald’s funds in trust. The bench dismissed the appeals filed by the Congress leaders, observing that prima facie the case “evidenced criminality”. The court has also raised questions regarding the legality of the initial loan granted by the Congress party to Associated Journals Limited, that ran the National Herald.

The Supreme Court, in its judgment on Friday expunged all the observations made by the Delhi HC.

Earlier, a bench comprising Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justice R Banumathi assured senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who’s representing the Gandhi family, saying they will look into the case to see if it should be urgently heard.

Sibal said that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy, who filed the criminal complaint against the UPA Chairperson and five others, had earlier agreed to February 12 to hear the case and now was saying he is not available until February 19.

In 2012, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy had filed the case accusing Sonia, Rahul and four other others — Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandes, Suman Dubey and Sam Pitroda — of cheating and misappropriation of funds in acquiring the ownership of the now-defunct daily, National Herald.

The National Herald newspaper, founded by Jawaharlal Nehru, was closely associated with India’s freedom struggle and the Indian National Congress until 2008. On April 1, 2008, the paper’s editorial announced that it was temporarily suspending its operations. Before its closure, the paper was run by Associated Journals Limited. In 2009, Sonia ordered the closure of the defunct paper.