New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday closed a contemptplea filed by Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Meenakshi Lekhi against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for wrongly attributing to the apex court his"chowkidar chor hai" comment with a warning to exercise more cautionin future. The apex court said that Rahul Gandhi "needs to be more care ful in future" for attributing to the court his remarks.

The verdict in the contempt plea was delivered minutes afterthe Supreme Court dismissed review petitions seeking a probe into the Rafale fighter jets deal. Apart from these two verdicts, the SC bench, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, also pronounced its decision on Sabarimala review petition and referred the matter to a larger bench.

Lekhi had accused Rahul Gandhi of misquoting the April 10,2019, order of the Supreme Court. He allegedly said that the apex court hadaccepted that "chowkidar" (a reference to Prime Minister Modi), is a"chor" (thief).Pursuant to this, the Supreme Court had issued acontempt notice against Rahul Gandhi. A bench headed by Chief Justice RanjanGogoi was categorical that he had to either offer a clear-cut apology or facecriminal contempt.Subsequently, the Congress leader tendered an unconditionalapology to the top court and sought closure of the contempt proceedings againsthim.

During the course of proceedings, former Attorney GeneralMukul Rohatgi, who represented Lekhi, had argued that Gandhi's apology shouldbe rejected and action must be taken against him.

"He (Gandhi) has only expressed regret. The law isclear in contempt cases that the line starts with an unconditionalapology," he had submitted before the court.