Rahul Gandhi has requested his conviction be put on hold in Modi surname remark case.
The Gujarat High Court will decide today on Rahul Gandhi's request for his conviction to be put on hold in a defamation case over his 2019 Modi surname remark.
If the High Court does pause Rahul Gandhi's conviction, his Lok Sabha membership will be restored, which will be a massive reprieve for the Congress leader ahead of the 2024 national election.
If the court, however, dismisses his petition and refuses to stay his conviction, he will remain disqualified as a Lok Sabha MP.
But the former Congress chief will not go to jail, as his two-year sentence has already been put on hold by the Surat court.
He will have the option of approaching the Supreme Court with his request.
In May, the High Court had refused to grant any interim relief to Rahul Gandhi, saying it would announce its final decision after the court's summer vacation, which ended three weeks back.
In a hearing on April 29, Rahul Gandhi's lawyer had argued that two years in jail for a "bailable, non-cognisable offence" meant his client could lose his Lok Sabha seat "permanently and irreversibly", which was a "very serious additional irreversible consequence to the person and the constituency he represents".
Under the law, an MP stands disqualified if sentenced to two years or more in prison.
Rahul Gandhi, 52, was convicted by a court and sentenced to prison for two years in Gujarat on March 23 for his speech during the 2019 Lok Sabha campaign. BJP MLA and former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi had filed the case over Rahul Gandhi saying: "How come all thieves have the common surname Modi?"
The Congress leader, who was the Lok Sabha MP from Wayanad in Kerala, was disqualified soon after.
Rahul Gandhi challenged the order in a sessions court in Surat along with an application seeking a stay on the conviction. While granting him bail, the court, on April 20, refused to stay the conviction, after which he approached the High Court.