‘How do you know China grabbed 2K sq km land? A true Indian will not say this!’: Supreme Court rebukes Rahul Gandhi

News Network

August 4, 2025

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday rapped senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his alleged defamatory statement against Indian Army during his 'Bharat Jodo' Yatra, saying "if you are true Indian, you should not have said those things".

"How could he say that 2000 km of land were occupied by Chinese," a bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Augustine George Masih asked him, while hearing his plea against the Allahabad High Court's order declining to quash a summons issued to him by a Lucknow court in a defamation case.

Senior advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for Rahul Gandhi, contended that if he cannot say those things, he can't be the Leader of Opposition.

"Say it in Parliament, why do you have to say in social media," the bench asked him.

The court pointed out he does have a right under Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution but he was also the Leader of Opposition and should not have said those things when there was a conflict on the border.

"How do you (Gandhi) get to know when 2000 sq km was occupied by China? What is the credible material? A true Indian will not say this. When there is a conflict across border. Can you say all this? Why can't you ask the question in the Parliament," the bench told the counsel.

The bench, however, stayed further proceedings in the defamation case and issued notice to the complainant. It fixed the matter for consideration after three weeks.

Singhvi raised the contention that the High Court stated that the complainant was not a person aggrieved but a person defamed, which was a novel concept but not a correct one. He said one can't be harassed like this by filing defamation cases.

Senior advocate Gaurav Bhatia, appearing for the complainant, contended that this was not a case of stay as the statement of the complainant has already been recorded.

In May this year, the Allahabad High Court had rejected Gandhi's plea challenging the issuance of summoning order passed by an MP MLA court in Lucknow against him.

The defamation complaint was filed by Uday Shankar Srivastava, the former Border Roads Organisation (BRO) Director against the alleged derogatory remarks made by Gandhi on December 16, 2022, during his Bharat Jodo Yatra.

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UN condemns Israeli regime’s ‘organized torture’ against Palestinians

News Network

November 30,2025

The United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) has condemned the Israeli regime for enforcing a policy of “organized torture” against Palestinians.

In a report published on Friday, CAT stated that the occupying regime enforces a deliberate policy of “organized and widespread torture and ill-treatment” against Palestinian abductees, particularly since October 7, 2023, when Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza.

The committee expressed “deep concern over repeated severe beatings, dog attacks, electrocution, water-boarding, use of prolonged stress positions [and] sexual violence” inflicted on Palestinians.

Palestinian prisoners were degraded by “being made to act like animals or being urinated on,” systematically denied medical care, and subjected to excessive restraints, “in some cases resulting in amputation,” the report added.

CAT also condemned the routine application of “unlawful combatants law” to justify the prolonged detention without trial of thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children.

More than 10,000 Palestinians, including women and children, are currently held in Israeli prisons, according to Palestinian and international human rights groups, with 3,474 Palestinians in “administrative detention,” meaning they are imprisoned without trial for indefinite periods.

The report highlighted the “high proportion of children who are currently detained without charge or on remand,” noting that while Israel sets the age of criminal responsibility at 12, even younger children have been abducted.

Children designated as security prisoners face severe restrictions on family contact, may be subjected to solitary confinement, and are denied access to education, in clear violation of international law.

The committee further suggested that Israel’s policies across the Occupied Territories constitute collective torture against the Palestinian population.

“A range of policies adopted by Israel in the course of its continued unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading living conditions for the Palestinian population,” the report said.

On Thursday, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas condemned the systematic killing and torture of Palestinian abductees in Israeli prisons, urging international action to halt these abuses.

Citing human rights data, Hamas stated that 94 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli prisons since the start of Tel Aviv’s genocidal war on Gaza.

“This reflects an organized criminal approach that has turned these prisons into direct killing grounds to eliminate our people,” the resistance movement said.

Hamas called on the international community, the UN, and human rights organizations to immediately pressure Israel to end crimes against prisoners and uphold their rights as guaranteed by all international conventions and norms.

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