Appeal in Delhi High Court and Supreme Court[edit]

The defendants appealed in the Delhi High Court against the summons issued by the
magistrate.[27][28][29][30] On 1 August 2014, Swamy was served notice to file reply in the
High Court.[31] On 28 August 2014, the metropolitan court fixed 9 December 2014 for the next
hearing of the case.[32][33] On 12 January 2015, the judge of the Delhi High Court recused
himself from hearing the case and directed that the petitions be directed before an appropriate
bench.[34]

On 27 January 2015, the Supreme Court of India asked Swamy to make out a case for the speedy
trial in the Delhi High Court which was hearing the appeal of Sonia Gandhi and others against
the summons issued to them by the trial court.[35] On plea request of Sonia Gandhi and others
the Chief Justice to assign the case to Justice Sunil Gaur again.[36]

On 1 August 2014, the Enforcement Directorate initiated a probe to discover if there was any
money laundering in the case.[37] On 18 September 2015, it was reported that the Enforcement
Directorate had reopened the investigation.[38]

On 7 December 2015, the Delhi High Court dismissed the appeals of Sonia Gandhi, Rahul
Gandhi and five others which included Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandes, Suman Dubey and
Satyan Pitroda,[39] and ordered them to appear in person before the trial court on 9
December.[40] The Delhi High Court said in its 7 December 2015 judgment noted "criminal
intent."[41]

On 12 February 2016 the Supreme Court granted exemption to all the five accused in the case
from personal appearances while refusing to quash proceedings against them.[42][43] Later on
12 July 2016 the Delhi High Court set aside the trial court judgement allowing examination of
balance sheets and other documents of Congress party and other two companies, the AJL and
Young Indian.[44][45][46] The next hearing in the court is scheduled on 20 August.[47]

The Delhi court had examined four complainant witnesses during the pre-summoning stage. The
complainant witnesses examined were Subramanian Swamy, the complainant in the case, R Venkatesh,
practising chartered accountant, Gulab Chand, an official from the Office of the Registrar of Companies,
NCT of Delhi and Haryana, and J Gopikrishnan, journalist with The Pioneer. The pre-summoning
evidence was closed and arguments were heard on the point of summoning of those named in the
complaint. On June 26, 2014, the court summoned Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Motilal Vora, Oscar
Fernandes, Suman Dubey and Sam Pitroda.

What did the trial court say while summoning these six persons?

In her petition before the apex court, Ms. Gandhi said she was the president of the Congress since 1998
and served as the Chairperson of the UPA government in the Lok Sabha.

She said the complainant in the case, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, was using the court as a forum to
play politics against her and that she should would suffer irreparable injury if no interim relief was
given at this point.

The petitioner-accused wondered how the High Court had proceeded to consider the probity of a
political party when it was not even arraigned as a party in the proceedings and actions of the Congress
party were not under consideration.

In her petition, Ms. Gandhi contended that the single judge conducted a roving enquiry into allegations
of a general nature without examining what offences are alleged to be prima facie made out.