A sessions Court in Gujarat’s Surat on Thursday reserved its order on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s plea against his conviction in the Modi surname criminal defamation case. The next hearing of the former Wayanad MP’s plea is now scheduled to be held on April 20 when the court will pronounce its verdict.

Additional Sessions Judge RP Mogera heard arguments from both sides and decided to hold the order till next hearing on April 20.

Earlier, Rahul Gandhi’s counsel told the sessions court that the trial Modi surname” remark was “not fair” and there was no need for maximum punishment in the case.

Senior advocate R S Cheema, the counsel for the Gandhi scion, told the judge that the trial was not “fair” and the judgement by the magistrate was “strange” because the trial court judge “made a hotchpotch of all the evidence on record”.

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Arguing on behalf of Rahul Gandhi, who wasn’t physically present in the court for the hearing, advocate Cheema said that the entire case was based on electronic evidence wherein I (Gandhi), delivered a speech during elections and a man sitting hundreds of kilometers away watched it on the news and filed a complaint.

There wasn’t any need for maximum punishment in such case, he said.

Rahul Gandhi had filed a plea in the Surat sessions court seeking a stay on his conviction in a criminal defamation case over the 2019 “Modi surname” remark.

On March 23, a magistrate court in Surat convicted the Congress leader in the criminal defamation case and sentenced him to two years in jail. The conviction led to his disqualification from the Lok Sabha.

The disqualification which will prevent 52-year-old Gandhi, a four-time MP, from contesting elections for eight years unless a higher court stays the conviction, has kicked up a political storm with the Congress staging a countrywide satyagraha last month to protest the decision.

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