The Supreme Court on Monday said that remarks made by Rahul Gandhi on its recent order in a Rafale case 'have been incorrectly attributed to this court'.

The top court has admitted BJP leader Meenakshi Lekhi's criminal contempt plea against the Congress president and told him to eplain his comments by April 22.

On April 10, the Supreme Court had allowed leaked documents to be relied upon by petitioners seeking review of its Rafale judgment and dismissed the government’s preliminary objections claiming “privilege” over them. A few hours after that, Rahul had spoken to journalists in Amethi where he had gone to file his nomination papers.

Rahul said he was happy that the Supreme Court order had proved his charge against the Prime Minister right on the Rafale deal.

He also elaborated on his oft-repeated charge against the Prime Minister on the Rafele deal and mentioned the Supreme Court order in the same context.

The bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said: 'We make it clear that views, observations, findings attributed to this court in the alleged speeches, remarks made by Gandhi to media/public have been incorrectly attributed to this court. We also make it clear that this court had no occasion to make such observation in as much as it was deciding legal admissibility of certain documents which were objected by the attorney general.' The other two judges on the bench were of Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna.

'Having clarified the matter, we deem it appropriate to seek explanation of Gandhi,' the court said.

The bench said it will hear the matter on April 23.

The BJP on Monday said the Supreme Court had exposed Rahul's 'lie' on the Rafale deal and claimed that people want the Congress president to apologise for 'defaming' Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Union minister and BJP leader Prakash Javadekar hit out at Rahul at a news conference after the court said it had made no such observations as allegedly attributed to it by the Congress chief. 'The Supreme Court has exposed Gandhi's lie. He lies daily and one of those lies has been exposed.... People are demanding that he tender an apology,' he said.

He accused Rahul of using the court to defame Modi and institutions, claiming that the Congress and the Gandhi family could not accept that Modi had run such an honest government while the UPA dispensation was mired in scams and scandals.