A court docket in Modi’s house state of Gujarat suspended the prison sentence earlier in April at some point of the attraction course of.

A person who shares the prime minister’s surname, which is frequent in Gujarat, accused Gandhi of defamation over the speech wherein he requested, “Why do all thieves have Modi as their surname?” Gandhi then referred to a few well-known and unrelated Modis within the speech: a fugitive Indian diamond tycoon, a cricket govt banned from the Indian Premier League, and the prime minister.

The petitioner who filed the case is a member of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat however just isn’t associated to the prime minister or the opposite two Modis talked about by Gandhi.

A keep of Gandhi’s conviction would have opened up a path to reinstate his parliamentary seat. But the Congress Party chief can nonetheless search to remain the conviction in a better court docket.

“We will continue to avail all options still available to us under the law,” Jairam Ramesh, the celebration’s common secretary, tweeted.

Under Indian regulation, a legal conviction and jail sentence of two years or extra are grounds for expulsion from Parliament. Gandhi was instantly disqualified after the ruling in March, dealing an enormous blow to the Congress celebration forward of common elections subsequent 12 months.

Gandhi dangers dropping his eligibility to run in elections for the subsequent eight years if a court docket doesn’t overturn his conviction and two-year sentence.

The prosecution of Gandhi, the great-grandson of India’s first prime minister and scion of the dynastic Congress celebration, was broadly condemned by opponents of Modi as the most recent assault in opposition to democracy and free speech by a authorities searching for to crush dissent. The velocity of his elimination from Parliament shocked Indian politics.