Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi expressed regret before the Madhya Pradesh High Court over remarks made during the 2018 Madhya Pradesh Assembly election campaign that led to a criminal defamation case filed by Kartikeya Singh Chouhan, son of former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. The statement was made during proceedings before the Jabalpur Bench of the High Court, where Gandhi has challenged the criminal case initiated against him.

During the hearing, counsel appearing for Rahul Gandhi informed the court that the Congress leader continued to stand by the public clarification he had issued shortly after making the speech in 2018. The counsel also conveyed Gandhi's regret over the erroneous reference to Kartikeya Singh Chouhan, maintaining that the mistake had been acknowledged immediately after it came to his notice.

According to submissions made before the High Court, the allegedly defamatory remarks were delivered at an election rally in Jhabua on October 29, 2018, while Rahul Gandhi was referring to the Panama Papers controversy. His legal team stated that Gandhi realised the following day that Kartikeya Singh Chouhan's name had been mentioned mistakenly during the speech and took steps to correct the error through a public clarification issued on October 30, 2018.

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The clarification stated that Gandhi had intended to refer to the son of the then Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh and not Kartikeya Singh Chouhan or his father, who was serving as the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh at the time. His counsel argued that the clarification demonstrated there was no intention to defame Kartikeya Singh Chouhan and that the incorrect reference was an inadvertent mistake made during a political address.

The criminal defamation case was filed by Kartikeya Singh Chouhan, who alleged that the remarks had harmed his reputation. Rahul Gandhi subsequently approached the Madhya Pradesh High Court seeking to quash the criminal proceedings. During the latest hearing, his legal team relied on the immediate clarification and expression of regret as part of their submissions while challenging the continuation of the case.

The High Court is hearing Gandhi's petition against the criminal proceedings and has not yet delivered its final decision. The case relates to remarks made during the 2018 Assembly election campaign and has continued through multiple stages of litigation. The court is expected to consider the submissions made by both parties before deciding whether the criminal defamation proceedings should continue or be set aside.

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