The Supreme Court has quashed the criminal complaint against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over 2022 remarks alleging Vinayak Savarkar collaborated with the British and took a colonial pension, ruling that Uttar Pradesh never showed it had obtained the mandatory government sanction required for prosecution. Justices Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu set aside the Lucknow magistrate's order summoning Gandhi.
The case originated from a 2022 rally complaint by advocate Nripendra Pandey alleging Gandhi's remarks incited hatred; the Allahabad High Court had earlier declined to quash the case in 2025, sending Gandhi to the Supreme Court instead. That same bench had previously called Gandhi's remarks 'irresponsible' and warned of possible suo motu action for similar future statements.
The ruling explicitly does not assess whether Gandhi's comments were defamatory or unlawful — only that the state's sanction paperwork was missing, ending the Lucknow proceedings on a procedural technicality rather than the merits.
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