Published Feb 17, 2026 | 4:09 PM ⚊ Updated Feb 17, 2026 | 4:09 PM
File photo of Rahul Gandhi with Siddaramaiah
Synopsis: “Allowing the proceedings to continue would amount to an abuse of the process of law. Proceedings so far as the petitioner (Rahul Gandhi) is concerned is set aside,” a single-member bench led by Justice S Sunil Dutt Yadav observed while pronouncing the order.
Karnataka High Court on Tuesday, 17 February quashed the criminal proceedings in a 2023 defamation case filed by the Karnataka BJP against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
The case pertains to the Congress party’s “Corruption Rate Card” advertisement that was circulated ahead of the 2023 assembly elections. The BJP had alleged that the advertisement is defamatory, false, and based on “fanciful imagination”.
“Allowing the proceedings to continue would amount to an abuse of the process of law. Proceedings so far as the petitioner (Rahul Gandhi) is concerned is set aside,” a single-member bench led by Justice S Sunil Dutt Yadav observed while pronouncing the order.
The BJP had filed complaints against Rahul Gandhi, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, accusing the Congress leaders of putting out false advertisements against its party leaders, including the then-chief minister Basavaraj Bommai.
It was BJP MLC and General Secretary S KeshavaPrasad who had filed the defamation case against Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, after the Assembly elections, alleging that the advertisements damaged the party’s image. Vinod Kumar, the BJP’s lawyer, argued in court that the “false” advertisements had harmed the BJP’s reputation.
In February 2024, the 42nd Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) court had directed the registration of a criminal case against the accused persons, as well as the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee.
In the run-up to the Karnataka Assembly elections in 2023, the Congress accused the BJP of “40 percent corruption” and placed several advertisements in newspapers alleging corruption by the then-ruling party.
Also, a poster campaign was launched targeting Bommai by displaying “PayCM” posters with the then-chief minister’s images across the city. The Congress also published a “corruption rate card” against the former government.
In July 2025, Karnataka High Court through an interim order stayed trial against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, and the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) in the criminal defamation case.
(Edited by Sumavarsha, with inputs from Anisha Reddy)
