The Gauhati High Court has granted relief to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a defamation case that has been pending for nearly a decade. A single-judge bench of Justice Arun Dev Choudhury on Monday set aside an order that had allowed additional witnesses to be included in the trial.
The case, originally filed in 2015 by RSS worker Anjan Kumar Bora, stems from an incident when Gandhi claimed he was stopped from entering the Barpeta Satra by RSS workers. Bora alleged that Gandhi made false statements and filed a criminal defamation petition against him. Over the years, the case has seen multiple hearings and legal proceedings, making it one of the long-running cases involving a high-profile political leader in India.
In March 2023, the trial court recorded statements from six witnesses and rejected the proposal to include three more. Bora challenged this decision, which led the Additional Sessions Judge of Kamrup Metropolitan to permit new witnesses in September 2023. Gandhi’s legal team, led by Senior Advocate Angshuman Bora, challenged this decision in July 2024, arguing that the order was legally unsound. 
Justice Choudhury noted that the application for additional witnesses was vague and lacked specific details. “In the considered opinion of the court, in the present case, the application filed before the magistrate was wholly vague and bereft of particulars. Therefore, the magistrate had rightly declined the prayer,” he said. The court also criticised the sessions judge for overturning the magistrate’s order mechanically without establishing the necessity of new witnesses.
Calling the sessions judge’s decision “arbitrary” and legally unsound, the High Court quashed the September 22, 2023 order. The court directed the trial court to expedite the case, considering that Gandhi is a sitting Member of Parliament.
