Gujarat High Court judge Justice Gita Gopi on Wednesday recused herself from hearing Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s application seeking a stay on his conviction in a defamation case related to his comments about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surname, reported the Hindustan Times.

“When the matter came up for hearing in the second half today, Justice Gita Gopi, in whose court the matter was listed, said, ‘not before me’,” Gandhi’s counsel PS Champaneri said.

Assigning a new judge might take two days, Chapaneri told NDTV.

On April 20, a sessions court in Surat had dismissed Gandhi’s plea challenging his conviction, saying that as a member of Parliament and a former president of the country’s second-largest political party, he should have been more careful with his words. Gandhi has challenged this order before the High Court.

The defamation case relates to Gandhi’s comment at a rally in Karnataka’s Kolar ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, during which the 52-year-old Congress leader had asked: “Why all the thieves, be it Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi or Narendra Modi, have Modi in their names?”

Nirav Modi is a fugitive businessman accused in the Punjab National Bank scam while Lalit Modi is a former Indian Premier League chief who has been banned for life by the cricket governing body.

On March 23 this year, Gandhi was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment in the case that was filed based on a complaint by Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Surat West MLA Purnesh Modi.

The Congress leader was convicted under Sections 499 (defamation) and 500 (punishment for defamation) of the Indian Penal Code. The court, however, granted him bail and suspended his sentence for 30 days.

A day after his conviction, Gandhi was disqualified as a Lok Sabha MP under the Representation of the People Act, 1951. According to Section 8(3) of the law, a legislator sentenced to jail for two years or more stands to be disqualified from the date of conviction till six years after serving time.

Gandhi’s disqualification can be overturned if a higher court stays the conviction.

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