Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was on Monday granted bail extension by the Surat sessions court and his next date of hearing has been fixed for April 13.
Surat court has also asked respondents to file a reply by April 10 in the case.
The development comes in wake of the 2019 criminal defamation case where he was disqualified from Lok Sabha after being sentenced to two years in prison.
In his plea, Gandhi had asked the court to set aside the magistrate order convicting him in the defamation case.
He also sought for an interim stay on the conviction till the matter was disposed off.
On March 23, the Surat court convicted Gandhi in a criminal defamation case against him over his “Modi surname” remark.
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Gandhi was granted bail and his sentence was suspended for 30 days allowing him to appeal the decision.
However, he was soon suspended by the Lok Sabha secretariat.
The election commission (EC) is also awaiting the 30-day period given by court to Gandhi for it to take a call on the now-vacant Wayanad constituency.
On March 17, the court of chief judicial magistrate HH Varma, concluded hearing final arguments and set March 23 as the date to pronounce the verdict.
Days after his disqualification, Gandhi was served a notice to vacate his official Delhi bungalow, as he was no longer entitled to it.
The case was filed against Gandhi based on a complaint lodged by BJP MLA and former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi for his alleged remark, “How come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?”.
The complainant had claimed that the controversial remark was made at a rally at Kolar in Karnataka ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections that has defamed the entire Modi community.
The guilty verdict and the disqualification from Parliament including eviction from official bunglow had triggered a political slugfest between the Congress and ruling BJP.
Significantly, several other opposition parties – including Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) and K Chandrashekhar Rao’s Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), united to support Gandhi.
Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party (SP) also backed Gandhi.