The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday strongly questioned Rahul Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, regarding his remarks about the Indian Army and Chinese occupation of Indian territory. The remarks in question pertain to the clash between Indian and Chinese armies in Arunachal Pradesh in December 2022, during which Gandhi allegedly stated that the Indian Army was being "thrashed" by Chinese troops.

During the hearing, a bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Joymalya Bagchi directly challenged Gandhi's assertions. They questioned the basis of his claim that 2,000 square kilometers of Indian territory had been occupied by China. The court asked, "How do you know that 2,000 square kilometers of Indian territory were occupied by the Chinese? Were you there? Do you have any credible material?". The bench further added, "If you were a true Indian, you would not say all this".

The Supreme Court also questioned why Gandhi made such statements on social media instead of raising the issue in Parliament. The court stated, "You are Leader of Opposition; say things in Parliament, not on social media". This observation was made after Gandhi's counsel, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, argued that it would be unfortunate if an opposition leader could not raise issues of national concern in the press.

The complainant, Udai Shankar Srivastava, a retired Director from the Border Roads Organisation, alleged that Gandhi's statements were "false and baseless" and intended to "demoralise the Indian Army" and damage national morale.

Despite the strong oral observations, the Supreme Court provided interim relief to Rahul Gandhi by staying the defamation proceedings against him in a Lucknow court. The court agreed to examine Gandhi's plea, which raises the issue of mandatory notice to the proposed accused at the pre-cognisance stage, and sought responses from the Uttar Pradesh government and the complainant in the matter. The court has issued a notice and will hear the matter again in three weeks.