Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has regained his seat as a member of parliament following a decision by the Supreme Court, the parliament announced on Monday.
Gandhi, 53, lost his mandate in March after a court sentenced him to two years in prison after allegedly making defamatory remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
According to Indian law, members of parliament lose their mandates if they are sentenced to at least two years in prison for a criminal offence.
However, the country’s Supreme Court stayed his sentence on the grounds that a lower court had not adequately explained why it had imposed the maximum sentence of two years.
The sentence itself will now be reviewed.Observers saw Gandhi’s trial and the harsh sentence as a sign of India’s declining freedom of expression and increasing strangulation of the opposition under Modi.
Modi has been prime minister of the world’s most populous democracy since 2014.
He is expected to seek re-election next year.Gandhi has denied the allegations and has been fighting back since being convicted.
He is great-grandson of India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru and the grandson of former prime minister Indira Gandhi.
His family has been instrumental in shaping the country’s politics through the secular Congress Party, which has ruled the country for most of the time since India’s independence from Britain in 1947. (NAN)