The Justice-Delivery System Operates in Unknown Ways: Chidambaram contrasts Rahul’s situation with a BJP MP’s

P Chidambaram, a senior member of the Congress, claimed on Tuesday that the justice system in India operates in “mysterious ways” and pointed out that while a BJP MP from Etawah was granted relief from his conviction in a case involving assault in a matter of days, Rahul Gandhi had to wait longer than four months, and that was after appealing to the Supreme Court.

Chidambaram’s comments were made the day after Gandhi returned to the Lok Sabha after the Supreme Court upheld his defamation case conviction and restored his membership in the Lower House.

 

“Mr Ram Shanker Karheria MP (BJP) from Etawah was convicted and sentenced to jail for two years in a case where he was accused of “assault,” according to Chidambaram in a tweet.

 

The former Union minister said that he was granted a stay of the conviction by the first appeal court in Agra within two to three days. “Well done, Mr. Katheria. I have nothing to say,” Chidambaram said.

 

“It took Mr. Rahul Gandhi more than four months to get a stay of his conviction in a case of alleged defamation (slander) — and that, too, from the Supreme Court,” he said. According to Chidambaram, India’s justice delivery system operates in a strange manner.

 

Katheria was convicted of assaulting a private power company employee in 2011, for which a lower court had sentenced him to two years in jail. Katheria’s conviction was overturned on Monday by an Agra district court.

 

The BJP MP from Etawah in Uttar Pradesh was found guilty of the accusations against him on Saturday by an MP-MLA court, which also handed down a two-year jail term and fine of Rs 50,000.

 

Following the Supreme Court’s August 4 judgement, the disqualification has ceased to be in effect, subject to subsequent legal rulings, according to a Lok Sabha Secretariat announcement released on Monday, which also announced Gandhi’s restoration as an MP.