Overview
- Justice S. Sunil Dutt Yadav held that continuing proceedings against Rahul Gandhi would be an abuse of process and set aside the case as to accused No. 4.
- The court found no nexus between Gandhi and the publication except for his image, noting the cited tweet was not on record and lacked a Section 65B certificate for electronic evidence.
- The complaint was deemed procedurally deficient because the state BJP lacked proper authorization to represent the national party as the aggrieved entity.
- The judge flagged the absence of the mandatory Section 202 Cr.P.C. inquiry despite Gandhi residing outside the magistrate court’s territorial jurisdiction.
- The order pertains only to Gandhi; cases naming Siddaramaiah, D.K. Shivakumar and the KPCC arising from the 2023 '40% commission' ads were not resolved by this ruling.