Congress Chief Rahul Gandhi will apologise through a fresh affidavit for wrongly attributing the “Chowkidar chor hai” remark to the Supreme Court, his lawyer told Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi today. The BJP had objected to the Congress chief’s earlier affidavit expressing regret, saying it is nowhere near an unqualified apology. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who was representing Mr Gandhi, said it was a mistake that the affidavit did not contain the word “apology” and a fresh one would be filed.
“I have checked the dictionary, regret means apology. (But) I will say apology,” Mr Singhvi told the court. When the Chief Justice said, “We have great difficulty in understanding what your client says”, Mr Singhvi assured the court that he would “make a correction” and file a “better affidavit” on Monday.
“We heard all. After extensive hearing, Singhvi wants to file additional affidavit. It is open for the respondent to file affidavit. The acceptance of any such affidavit will be considered on Monday,” said the bench comprising Chief Justice Gogoi, and Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and KM Joseph.
Gandhi added, “There are errors in the affidavit and for these three errors I apologize. There was no intention to insinuate anything to the SC.”
However, CJI Gogoi was not pleased. He said, “We have great difficulty in understanding what you are saying.” BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi, who filed contempt petition against Gandhi, said that it is the grossest kind of contempt. The CJI bench has given Rahul Gandhi to file an additional affidavit in the case and added that the grant of time shouldn’t be accepted as an apology. The court will again hear the contempt case on Monday.