Supreme Court reserves verdict in the Rafale review petitions and the contempt plea filed against Rahul Gandhi, Here's what happened

With reference to the contempt plea against Rahul Gandhi over his controversial 'Chowkidar Chor hai' comment misattributing it to the Supreme Court, the apex body, on Friday has reserved its verdict after hearing argument from counsels - Mukul Rohatgi representing BJP Leader Meenakshi Lekhi and Abhishek Manu Singhvi appearing for Congress Chief Rahul Gandhi.

While Singhvi argued that he meant no disrespect to the Court and has quoted the errors in his previous affidavits while expressing regret, Rohatgi has argued that if the affidavit is accepted, Rahul Gandhi should be asked to apologise to the public.

Earlier on Wednesday, Gandhi had filed a third affidavit tendering his 'unconditional apology' over the contempt of court petition moved against him by BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi for misattributing his 'Chowkidar Chor Hai' attack to its order in the Rafale review petitions.

The apex body has also reserved its judgment in the review petitions of its Rafale order of dismissing petitions seeking a court-monitored probe into Rafale fighter jet deal with France.

ACCESSED: This Is Rahul Gandhi's 'unconditional Apology' To The Supreme Court For Misattributing His 'Chowkidar Chor Hai' Attack To Its Rafale Review Petitions Order

The affidavit contains his 'unconditional apology' after the Supreme Court bench had been unsatisfied with the 'expression of regret' that he had made earlier citing that the remarks in question had been made 'in the heat of political campaigning'.

The Deponent unconditionally apologizes for the wrongful attributions to this Hon’ble Court. The Deponent further states that any such attributions were entirely unintentional, non-willful and inadvertent, read the affidavit.

Mere hours after tendering an unconditional apology to the Supreme Court for his 'chowkidar chor hai' jibe on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said that the Congress party never coined the term 'Chowkidar Chor Hai'.

"While addressing a rally in Chhattisgarh, I said the chowkidar promised two crore jobs to the youth and assured Rs. 15 lakh will be deposited in bank accounts of each Indian. As I was speaking, I said Chowkidar and around 10-15 young men in the rally said 'chor hai'," he said.

Here's The Significance Of The Supreme Court Asking Rahul Gandhi To File A Fresh Affidavit In The Contempt Plea

In the earlier filed affidavits, Gandhi had stated 'expression of regret' which led to Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi asking if 'expression of regret' quantifies as an apology and Justice Sanjay Kishen Kaul warning Singhvi saying: "when you make a mistake, you should accept that you’ve made a mistake," which led to Singhvi finally saying that Rahul Gandhi apologizes for that statement but clarifying that Rahul Gandhi has expressed regret and made it clear that this regret is for the attribution only.

The affidavit was expressing regret for Rahul Gandhi's remark 'Supreme Court ne Kaha Chowkidar Chor hai' thus "incorrectly attributing" his slogan to the SC when the court had dismissed the Centre's objections to hearing the petitions filed by former union ministers Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha against the initial Rafale order passed by the apex court on December 14, 2018 when it dismissed petitions which demanded a probe into the Rafale deal.