Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who has been facing the ire of the Supreme Court for attributing the ‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’ jibe aimed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi to it, apologised to the court on Tuesday.
Pulling up Gandhi while hearing the contempt proceedings against him, the bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi observed that in the affidavit filed, at one point the Congress chief is admitting the mistake and at the other, it is denying making the contemptuous remarks.
“We have great difficulty in understanding what you want to say in the affidavit,” said the bench, also comprising justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph.
As Gandhi agreed to file a fresh affidavit, expressing apology, the Supreme Court asked him to keep his political stand to himself.
On April 22, Gandhi had expressed regret for his attribution and given an undertaking to the Supreme Court that he will not attribute any views to the court in his political addresses unless there are specific orders.
Submitting his affidavit in response to the criminal contempt petition moved by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Meenakshi Lekhi in the top court, Gandhi accepted that the words were never used by the court and his attribution came in the heat of the moment when he was campaigning in Amethi.
He also described the contempt petition as an abuse of the process of the court since it wrongly tried to impute motives whereas he had no intention at all to "willingly" misrepresent the court order.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for May 6.
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