The grant of stay by the SC essentially means that Rahul's conviction will be kept in abeyance as though it did not exist. His disqualification from Parliament flowed from the conviction and with the grant of stay, no grounds any longer exist for the disqualification.
In a big win for Rahul Gandhi, the Supreme Court on Friday stayed conviction of the former Congress President in the ‘Modi surname defamation case, which cost him his Lok Sabha membership, saying that no reasons were given by the trial judge for imposing the maximum punishment of two years in the case.
It said that Gandhi has always maintained that he is not guilty of offence and "if he had to apologise and compound the offence, he would have done it much earlier".