NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s top court on Friday stayed the criminal defamation conviction of opposition leader Rahul Gandhi for mocking Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surname — a conviction that disqualified him from being a member of parliament.

A fierce critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his main challenger in 2024 polls, Gandhi was ousted from Parliament after his conviction by a magistrate’s court in March.

Congress party spokesman Ajoy Kumar welcomed the Supreme Court order.

The defamation case involved comments Gandhi made in a 2019 election speech that were deemed to be insulting to Modi’s surname. He was sentenced to two years in prison by a magistrate’s court but the courts suspended his prison sentence in April.

The case was filed by Purnesh Modi, who is a member of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat state but is not related to the prime minister.

Gandhi's conviction was upheld by the Gujarat state High Court so he filed an appeal in the country’s Supreme Court last month.