A Supreme Court bench consisting of Justices Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu has officially canceled a defamation case filed against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. The case stemmed from comments Gandhi made regarding Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, which led to legal action by complainants who alleged the remarks were defamatory.

The court’s decision to quash the case was based on a procedural technicality rather than a judgment on the merits of the defamation claims themselves. According to the bench, the prosecution failed to secure the mandatory legal sanction required to initiate such a case against a public figure under the relevant sections of the law. Because this procedural requirement was not met, the court determined that the case could not proceed.

This ruling marks a significant development in the ongoing legal challenges faced by Gandhi. While the court focused strictly on the lack of proper authorization for the case, the decision effectively ends this specific legal dispute. The court did not weigh in on the content of the remarks or the intent behind them, focusing exclusively on the failure of the prosecution to follow the established legal protocol for filing defamation charges in this context.