New Delhi, Sept. 10 -- The Supreme Court on Wednesday said "everyone is equal" before it and asked the complainant in a criminal defamation case against Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi to follow the prescribed procedure if he wanted an early hearing, after his lawyer alleged that the court registry was treating the Congress leader as a "VVIP". A bench, comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana, made the observation after senior advocate Gaurav Bhatia, appearing for former Border Roads Organisation (BRO) director Uday Shankar Srivastava, complained that Gandhi's appeal had not been listed despite an earlier judicial direction to hear it. "He is not a VVIP. The matter was listed five months ago also and was not taken up. This does not augur well for the institution as well," said Bhatia, referring to the court's December 2025 order directing that the matter be listed on April 22. The bench, however, asked him to move an application seeking an early hearing. "Let us follow the procedure. File an application seeking early hearing.Everyone is equal before us. Please file an application for early hearing. We will take it up," said the bench. The exchange came in Gandhi's appeal against an Allahabad high court order refusing to quash the criminal defamation proceedings arising from his remarks during the Bharat Jodo Yatra in December 2022 about the clash between Indian and Chinese troops in Arunachal Pradesh. The case had earlier come before a bench of justices Dipankar Datta and Augustine George Masih, which on August 4, 2025 stayed further proceedings. That bench had questioned Gandhi about the basis for his claim that Chinese troops had captured 2,000 sq km of Indian territory and had also observed that such issues involving a border conflict ought to be raised in Parliament. Gandhi had said he was exercising his right to free speech and seeking to draw public attention to issues that, in his view, were not being adequately raised. The complainant, Srivastava, had approached a Lucknow court alleging that Gandhi's remarks were defamatory of the Indian Army. He had served as director of the BRO, a position he claimed was equivalent in rank to a Colonel in the Army. The Lucknow court subsequently summoned Gandhi. In May 2025, the Allahabad high court declined to interfere, holding that Srivastava could maintain the complaint as an "aggrieved person" under Section 199 of the CrPC. Gandhi then moved the Supreme Court. In December, the matter was directed to be listed for final hearing on April 22, 2026, along with a separate defamation matter involving The Wire. The case, however, was not taken up. During the Wednesday hearing, Bhatia contended that his case was wrongly tagged with petitions filed by The Wire and that the court ought to order de-tagging his case. Responding, the bench asked Bhatia to invoke the mechanism available for seeking an early hearing and de-tagging the case....